Richard Bell (director)

Richard Bell is the writer and director of the short feature Two Brothers and the feature film Eighteen. The latter starred Brendan Fletcher, Carly Pope, Mark Hildreth, Thea Gill, and Alan Cumming. The film was narrated by Ian McKellen, with music composed by Bramwell Tovey and performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Eighteen was released on DVD on June 27, 2006. It made its Canadian broadcast television premiere on City TV on March 1, 2008 and became available on iTunes in summer / fall of 2010.
Bell adapted Joanne Proulx's novel Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet for director Erik Canuel. The project was developed by Telefilm and Astral Media, through the Harold Greenberg Fund. At the Whistler Film Festival in 2012, Bell was one of the three winners of the China Canada Gateway for Film, a co-production initiative with China, with his romantic-comedy pitch Blush. In September 2010, Bell was chosen out of 217 applicants to the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab.

In 2007, Richard was nominated for a Genie Award for co-writing the song "In a Heartbeat" for his film Eighteen, with composer Bramwell Tovey. Vancouver newspaper Xtra West awarded him Visual Artist of the Year for the same film at their annual Hero Awards that year.