Richard Bracewell

In an interview with Den of Geek for the DVD release in February 2016, Bracewell talked about the development, production and release of Bill: "It generated a huge amount of loyalty and warmth. Chris Addison was nothing to do with the production, and he's tweeted about it several times. Paddy Considine did too. Even James Corden all the way over in LA! We get nothing but terrific feedback from fans on Twitter and Facebook. And not just in the UK, but in Australia and from other territories really keen to see it. We didn't do a red carpet, we just did a friends and family screening on the eve of its release. I even bought drinks at my own premiere! It's generated warmth but I think – are we allowed to say things like it's a peculiarly British film? It feels different? It's a little bit quirky? It's got an intentional DIY feel to it? It's meant to be like that. I think maybe that's something people have picked up on. Superhero films aren't so much our cultural history, but we do that kind of comedy really well. I hope that what we've done is something that's wearing its learning on its sleeve. We do know there's a bit of Python in it, we do know there's a bit of Blackadder, but so what? There's Star Wars in there too, because we love those movies."

In 2016, Bracewell was nominated with Rickard and Willbond for the Award for Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Bill was released in UK cinemas on 18 September 2015 by Vertigo Films and on DVD and digital download in the UK by NBCUniversal on 15 February 2016. Bill has also been released in cinemas in the United States and Australia.

Bracewell directed Bill and produced with Tony Bracewell, Charles Steel and Aly Flind. Principal filming began on 10 February 2014 at locations around Yorkshire, including York Minster, Skipton Castle, Marske-by-the-Sea, Bolton Castle and Selby Abbey. Other filming locations included Stowe School, Caroline Gardens Chapel in Peckham, London, and Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex. The closing scenes were filmed at Shakespeare's Globe, a modern recreation of the theatre where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed.

BBC Films announced Bill on 13 May 2013, as a co-production with fellow UK production companies Punk Cinema and Cowboy Films. Head of BBC Films Christine Langan said that "we’re thrilled [to be] making the first film starring this team of incredibly talented and popular British comedy writers and performers." In November of the same year ScreenDaily.com reported that the BFI (British Film Institute) Film Fund had invested £1 million in the production, with further undisclosed amounts coming from BBC Films, LipSync and Screen Yorkshire, through its Yorkshire Content Fund.

In 2010, the Daily Telegraph listed The Gigolos as "the most underrated film of all time".

In 2010 Bracewell met actors and writers Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond after his daughter showed him sketches from the award-winning CBBC programme Horrible Histories. Bracewell had directed Willbond previously in The Gigolos. Together, Bracewell, Rickard and Willbond devised an original idea for a comedy about the origins of William Shakespeare, based around the years between 1585 and 1592 known as Shakespeare's "lost years". Subsequently, in 2011 BBC Films commissioned Punk Cinema to develop a screenplay for Bill based on the idea.

Cuckoo was premiered in September 2009 at the Cambridge Film Festival, where Clive James called the film "masterly and thrilling", and was released in UK cinemas by Verve Pictures in December 2010.

Bracewell's debut movie The Gigolos (2007) stars Susannah York, Anna Massey and Siân Phillips alongside newcomers Sacha Tarter and Trevor Sather. Bracewell wrote the film with Tarter and Sather, and directed and produced the film in London (UK) in 2005. He was also cinematographer on the film. The Gigolos had a limited film release by Punk Cinema on 23 March 2007. The British Film Institute released The Gigolos on DVD in the UK on 9 February 2009. First shown in competition at the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI FEST) in November 2005, Bracewell attended as one of the New Faces in European Cinema. The film was favourably reviewed by the Los Angeles Timesas "a subtly delightful film".

Cuckoo was Bracewell's second feature, starring Richard E. Grant, Laura Fraser and Tamsin Greig. The film was shot in December 2007 and January 2008 in London and Norwich, and in a studio built in a disused grain warehouse in Yarmouth. Cuckoo is a thriller about sound and lies. It co-stars Antonia Bernath and Adam F. Bracewell wrote and directed the film, and produced with Tony Bracewell.

All three films were produced by UK feature film production company Punk Cinema, which Bracewell set up in 2004 with co-producer and brother Tony Bracewell.

Bracewell was born in London and was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and New College, Oxford where he directed, co-wrote and performed in the Oxford Revue in 1991.

Richard Bracewell (born 28 November 1969) is an English film director best known for directing 2015 British comedy feature film Bill, which he also developed with writers Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond . Bill was Bracewell's third feature film following The Gigolos and Cuckoo.