Ani Mercedes CEO and Impact Producer, Looky Looky Pictures

Empowering filmmakers to activate their film’s most passionate audience through powerful partnership building, engaging events, and impactful social change campaigns.

Ani Mercedes is CEO, Impact Producer, and Founder of Looky Looky Pictures, which connects the power of films with the power of people, by bringing films to passionate partners and audiences who can use them as tools to change the world. Since 2016, Looky Looky Pictures has led or advised more than 40 social impact campaigns, including DOC NYC 2020 selections Through the Night and Duty Free and impactful films Councilwoman, Building the American Dream, Liyana, and led the Outreach for Good Pitch NYC 2019. They work with stories that go beyond empathy; that aim to participate in the transformational work of building solidarity with (rather than for) the communities they aim to serve.

Ani is a passionate “gate-opener,” advocating for independent filmmaker empowerment, offering the Guided Campaign service, a hands-on accelerator program that guides filmmakers on how to confidently launch and implement a successful film impact campaign with full access to templates, weekly strategy calls, and a private Facebook group. Ani is also a financial educator and created the Thriving Filmmaker Academy, a resource with free webinars and workshops that have served over 500 filmmakers in over 20 countries.

Ani was a Firelight Media Impact Producer Fellow, Kartemquin Films intern, White House intern during President Obama’s administration, an elementary school teacher via Teach for America, earned a Bachelor’s in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and a Master’s in Public Administration from Syracuse University, and lives in her hometown of Miami, Florida where she enjoys the boxing and oil painting.