Merki and Reinhart Film
Merki und Reinhart Film GbR was founded in 2020 by HFF graduates Louis Merki and Welf Reinhart. The company produces socially relevant, character-driven films with a distinctive style, focusing on fictional TV and cinema projects. Their first production, "Die ehemaligen Grenzorte" (The Former Border Towns), was a co-production with the German Film Academy and the Federal Foreign Office. Merki und Reinhart Film gained international recognition with the short film "EIGENHEIM" (Rooms - BR/HFF/Merki und Reinhart Film, 23 min., 2021), which won several international film awards and received the Silver Student Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2022. With "Der verlorene Mann" (A Fading Man) (Maverick Film, BR, Arte), Merki und Reinhart Film co-produced their first feature film, starring Dagmar Manzel, August Zirner, and Harald Krassnitzer. The film premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2026.
LEFT: WELF REINHART, RIGHT: LOUIS MERKI
Louis Merki
Louis Merki appeared on screen as a child, including alongside Benno Fürmann and Jan Fedder. After graduating from high school, he completed an apprenticeship as a media business administrator at Hager Moss Film in Munich and subsequently studied production and media economics at the University of Television and Film Munich, where he received his diploma in 2024. Together with director Welf Reinhart, he founded the production company Merki und Reinhart Film in 2020. Welf Reinhart's short film "Eigenheim" (Own Home), produced by Louis Merki, won a Student Academy Award (Student Oscar) in 2022. Alongside his independent work, Louis Merki gained extensive experience in serial storytelling: He worked as a junior producer at Odeon Fiction on the international Degeto miniseries "DIE SAAT – Tödliche Macht" (THE SEED – Deadly Power) (ARD/Degeto/NRK). In 2024, he returned to Hager Moss Film as a producer, where he oversaw, among other things, the TV films "Heute fängt mein neues Leben an" (directed by Katja Benrath, ARD/Degeto) and "Bloß nicht Liebe" (working title, directed by Sebastian Stern, ZDF). With "Der verlorene Mann" (directed by Welf Reinhart, produced by Maverick Film / Merki und Reinhart Film GbR, 2025), Louis Merki presents his first feature film as a producer.
Welf Reinhart
first studied in Kassel and later studied feature film directing at the University of Television and Film (HFF) in Munich. His short film, Rooms, screened at numerous Academy Award-qualifying festivals and won, among other honors, the Student Academy Award in Los Angeles in 2022. A Fading Man is his first feature-length film. It celebrates its World Premiere at the Tiger Competition of the Rotterdam IFF.