Graduate in literature and professor of film history, Xabi Molia is first and foremost a seasoned writer who twice won the Young French Writer Prize for his novels Le Temps des Cerises and Spinoza and Me. With a passion for the cinema, he launches himself into the direction of shorts which likewise receive a warm critical reception. In 2008, he collaborates for the first time with Julie Gayet on his third short S'éloigner du rivage. One year later he works once more with her as the star and producer of his first feature as director: Eight Times Up.