Richard Smith

Biography

Richard’s first feature script, psychological chiller TRAUMA, was directed by Marc Evans, starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari.  Produced by Warner Bros/Little Bird/BBC Films, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and was selected for Edinburgh and Toronto.  It opened on 175 UK cinema screens in August 2004.  “Gripping thriller” (News of the World).

Richard's half-hour film, LEONARD, won Best Television Screenplay in the 2002 BAFTA Scotland Awards.  Starring Dennis Lawson and Stuart Wilkinson, directed by Brian Kelly, it was produced by Stella Maris Films/Scottish Media Group/Scottish Screen.  Other awards for LEONARD include the Audience Award at the 2002 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, the Organization Prize at the 2002 Algarve Film Festival, the award for Best Single Drama at the 2002 Mental Health Media Awards and Best Fiction at the 2002 Tehran Festival for “the highly professional skills in driving the narrative and for its sense of humour in dealing with a human relationship…”

Richard is currently working on his fifth feature script commission: BIG DEAL (based on the book by Anthony Holden) with Celador Films (The Descent).  He recently completed the feature adaptation of LEONARD with New York-based Kinetic Arts, supported by Crab Apple Films and Scottish Screen.  LEONARD is currently casting.  He’s developing a true-life television film with SMG, and original feature film WIRELESS with Abigail Howkins/Paul Welsh.

Richard directed his first short film, MONO, in 2006, written by himself, funded by Digicult/The Film Council/Scottish Screen, produced by GMAC/Abigail Howkins.  It was runner-up in the BBC New Filmmaker’s Award, won the audience award at Merchant City Festival and was selected across the world, including Los Angeles, Mill Valley (San Francisco), Atlantic Film Festival (Nova Scotia), Uppsala (Sweden), Foyle (Ireland), Leeds, Encounters (Bristol), Sao Paulo, Inverness, Vendome (France) and Santa Barbara.  It has been nominated for a TORC award by the Celtic Film and TV Festival, and was shown domestically by BBC3.  Richard has recently completed three-minute film, SCORE, for filmaka.com, and been selected as winner by its jury.

Richard has a postgraduate degree in scriptwriting (with distinction) from the Univerisity of Salford.  He’s an advisor on the Moonstone script labs and mentor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Richard is represented by Charlotte Knight