Lorenz Merz, born 1981 in Zurich from swiss-american parents. Father of three sons. After formation in music, painting and photography he studied film at University of the Arts Zurich and Universidad del Cine Buenos Aires. His graduate short ONE DAY AND NOTHING 2008 won several awards, including the Silver Leopard at the 61st Locarno IFF  and the Swiss Film Award  2009 - Best Director. His improvised road movie CHERRY PIE 2013 (IFF Locarno, Camerimage, Wroclaw, Rotterdam, Valencia, Cork... ) won many international awards and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Swiss Film Awards 2014. His latest feature SOUL OF A BEAST 2021 (74°Locarno IFF, Atlanta IFF, Cleveland IFF, Moscow IFF, Buenos Aires IFF, Shanghai IFF... ) won several awards and broke the record with 8 Nominations including Best Picture at the Swiss Film Award 2022 - from where it won 4 Awards (Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Music, Best Production Design). With his work as cinematographer he was represented several times at Camerimage (worlds greatest festival dedicated to the art of cinematography). Among other awards he won three times the Swiss Film Award - Best Cinematography - for SUMMER GAMES 2011 by Rolando Colla (IFF Venice/Toronto 2011, Official Swiss Entry - 84th Academy Awards 2012), WAR 2014 by Simon Jaquemet (IFF San Sebastian/Karlovy Vary 2014) and for his own film SOUL OF A BEAST 2022. In 2013, he and fellow filmmakers founded the Zurich based production company 8horses. He was part of IFF Jury's (Locarno IFF, Neuchatel Fantastic IFF, Max Ophuels Award) and is member of the EFA European Film Academy, the SFA Swiss Film Academy and the SCS Swiss Cinematographer’s Society. He's currently shooting 7STORIES (a series of interlinked scientific cinematographic paintings).