Biographie
From 1992 to 1994, he studied at the renowned ESRA film school (Notable alumni: Florent Emilio Siri "Hostage", Jean-François Richet "Assault on Presinct 13, Mesrine", Pascal Laugier "Martyrs") in Paris and obtained a BTS in production. In 1995, he graduated in New York from the AVID master class, Video and Arts.
To gain real hands-on experience he produced during his studies a dozen short films. In 1994, he became a location manager for a famous Canal+ TV series "Les Gros Cons". He moved to New York in 1995 until 1996 and rapidly worked as an international sales manager at Fox Lorber, distributor of the John Woo's movies. Then he relocated to Los Angeles to work for Roger Corman in the marketing department at New Concorde-Horizons.
In 1997 he directs for Canal+ a 6 episode pilot TV series entitled "The Toilette Zone". The same year, Hamster production hired him as unit manager for a TV series broadcasted on the major French network France 2.
Right after creating is own production company, Navarro Films, he directed and produced in 2001 his first feature film, "Neutre" that was released in theaters, on television and on DVD. Neutre was selected at many festivals, such as Montreal, Mar del Plata, Hof, Braunschweig and Geneva. He then directed a music video for the most popular Swiss rap band, "Sens Unik".
2003 was a milestone of his career. At the Cannes film festival he was selected as one of the 18 best upcoming European producers in the sought-after Producer On The Move selection. Then the major Swiss network TSR commissioned him two documentaries for the series "Photosuisse". The same year Xavier graduated from the most important European workshop for producers EAVE.
In 2004, he produced for German-French channel ARTE "Love Express", that was released in theaters and selected many festivals such as Toronto Cinéfranco film festival and FIPA. The same year he produced with the biggest Swiss televison network TSR the documentary "Geisha - The Twilight of Flowers", that was sold to numerous major TV channels around the world (ABC, NHK, Canal+, RAI,...).
In 2005, he produced "RYNA". The movie was a critical success, as it garnered 18 festival selections (AFI Hollywood, Montreal, Seattle, Cleveland, Sarajevo, Bangkok, Namur, Thessaloniki, etc), where it won more than 8 awards. Consequently Xavier was nominated in 2006 for "Best Picture" at the Quartz (the Swiss academy awards) as producer.
In 2005, he directed the documentary "Swiss Made in Hollywood" that was part of the "Temps Présent", the Swiss equivalent of "CBS - 60 Minutes". The same year, he directed for the Swiss main television network an episode of the series "Designsuisse" about the renowned San Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar.
In 2007, he produced a TV series for the major Swiss network entitled "La Tribu". This series gathers all the major names of Comedy in Switzerland.
In 2009 he garnered his second Swiss Academy Award nomination as producer for "Best Animation Film" for "Tango Lola". The same year he directed a music video of the best selling artist of Switzerland, Stress.
His production company Navarro Films joins in March 2006 the group of European producers Tarantula, already present in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Great Britain, and officially became Tarantula Suisse. He left Tarantula in July 2009 after 10 years as a producer of more than 20 movies and TV series.
In 2009-10 he has directed during 38 weeks and 2 seasons the Swiss version of "Spitting Image" or "DC Follies" that already exists in more than 15 countries. The show is entitled "Les Bouffons de la Confédération" and encountered a huge success.
Nowadays, Xavier Ruiz has just finished directing his second feature film "Verso" with a remarkable international cast including Laurent Lucas (Harry With a Friend Like Harry, Calvaire), Carlos Leal (Casino Royale, Los Abrazos Rotos, CBS - Chaos), Delphine Chaneac (Splice) and Arben Bajraktaraj (Harry Potter 7, Taken, Eden Log). His movie has been released in 7 major countries so far (France, UK, Germany, Italia, Japan, Russia and Switzerland).
Since 2008 Xavier has been a member of the Swiss Academy of Cinema. He is also a member of the ARF (the Swiss DGA).
