Franz Josef Holzer was born in Walenstadt, Eastern Switzerland, in 1967. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Lucerne and has lived in Geneva since 1992.

After studying philosophy, literature and psychology at the Universities of Zurich and Berlin, he began medical studies in Geneva and received his Federal Medical Degree in 1998.

He has been working with video, Super-8, 16mm, as well as DV, since 1986 and has participated in seminars at Focal, British Film Institute, the University of Geneva, and Fonction: Cinéma.