Richard Copans, born November 25, 1947, is a French film producer, cinematographer, and director.

After studying cinematography at IDHEC from 1966 to 1968, he worked as an assistant cameraman for Andréas Winding, Philippe Rousselot, Pierre Lhomme, and Yann Le Masson from 1969 to 1976. From 1973 to 1978, he was a cameraman and director with the far-left militant film collective Cinélutte, notably on Bonne chance la France!

In 1978, he founded Les Films d’ici (GIE) and produced, among other films, Journal de campagne and Ananas by Amos Gitaï. In 1982, he founded Les Films du passage with Paulo Branco, and subsequently produced around fifteen feature films. In 1984, he founded Les Films d’ici (SARL) with Yves Jeanneau. They produced numerous documentaries, mainly with La Sept Arte, including Route One/USA and Point de départ by Robert Kramer, Mémoires d’Ex by Mosco and Check The Changes by Marc Huraux, Arthur Rimbaud, a biography by Richard Dindo, La vie est immense et pleine de danger and Et la vie by Denis Gheerbrant, Les Moissons de fer by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky and Gérard Rougeron, Les Enfants illégitimes d’Anton Webern by Lilia Ollivier.