Rafi Mercado

Rafi Mercado just won Best Production Design at La Silla Awards 2019 last February for the film El Proyeccionista in Dominican Republic. Mercado also won Best Production Design at La Silla Awards for Biodegradable 2013 and La Gunguna 2015. He also won Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at the Iris Dominicana Movie Awards 2018 for Reinbou where he also won Best Production Design in 2015 for La Gunguna. He's also celebrating his 30 years in the entertainment industry. For the last two years Mercado has been developing and designing a multi media theatrical sensory experience by the name of Awakenings for Las Vegas. An extraterrestrial "Cirque Du Soleil". His credits as film director and production designer include the short film 204, winner of the Audience Award at Cinefiesta 2010 and Miente, winner of the first Best Director Havana Star at the Havana Film Festival in NYC; Miente also represented Puerto Rico at the 2010 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. As the founding father of HOME (House Of Mercado Entertainment) he has produced, designed and directed over 200 thematic events, originated at the NYC legendary nightclub Soundfactory. Today; Mercado is developing the story of the Soundfactory for a possible film; a documentary and a TV series. Other Mercado's highlights include being the associate costume designer for the Tony Award winning production of Rent on Broadway and the director and designer of Wickedville, which he created for the MGM Grand's Studio 54 in Las Vegas. Mercado also won Best Segment of The Evening with Wisin y Yandel at the 2006 Latin Grammy Music Awards. He has worked with artists such as Sade, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Jose Feliciano, Daddy Yankee and Draco. Rafi studied Art Direction at New York University and has a Bachelors of Science in Film from Boston University; also went to L'Université De Grenoble in France. Believing that life is about learning and teaching, He has created workshops specialized in character development via production design and costume design at different film festivals like Icaro in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Also Mercado created a Master Class at the University of Santo Domingo (UASD) on Production Design. Today he's in the process of developing the script for his next film as a director; 14 Stitches; Caribbean stories dealing with psychological, social, spiritual and sexual identity crises.