‘Marty Supreme’ Elevates Josh Safdie as Safdie Brothers’ Divide Comes Into Focus

Over the past few years, directors Josh and Benny Safdie, often hailed as “The Safdie Bros,” have gained strong prominence in Hollywood by breaking through the industry with their unique filmmaking style, marked by overlapping dialogue and anxiety-inducing narratives that tell gritty fables of ordinary people striving for the extraordinary.

These stories include a jewelry dealer in the Diamond District, street-smart criminals, and heroin addicts, portrayed in an absurd, over-the-top manner through a cinéma vérité lens.

They gained significant acclaim with "Good Time," starring English actor Robert Pattinson of "Twilight" fame, and "Uncut Gems," starring comedian Adam Sandler.

After gaining this momentum and status, the brothers stepped away from their combined directorial work following "Uncut Gems" in 2019.

Benny went on to work as an actor in films by other prolific directors, including "Licorice Pizza" and "Oppenheimer," and co-created the black comedy television series "The Curse" along with Nathan Fielder.

Josh undertook smaller projects, including producing the 2022 film "Funny Pages" and the HBO documentary series "Ren Faire," sharing credits with his brother under their Elara Pictures banner. He also directed a music video titled "Lost but Never Alone" with his frequent collaborator Daniel Lopatin, known professionally as Oneohtrix Point Never.

In 2024, they announced that they were officially separating and would pursue filmmaking independently. Benny was the first to break the silence and confirmed this to "Variety," stating that he would direct on his own and that he needed freedom at this point in his life.

Both brothers announced their separate lineups set for 2025 under the same A24 label, with Josh directing "Marty Supreme," a fictional sports drama starring Timothée Chalamet, inspired by the real-life table tennis player Marty Reisman. Josh also serves as co-screenwriter and editor alongside his long-time collaborator Ronald Bronstein.

Benny Safdie went on to direct "The Smashing Machine," a remake of the 2004 documentary of the same name about two-time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

The films were set to release two months apart, with "The Smashing Machine" premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September, where Benny won the Silver Lion for Best Direction. However, the film was released in October to a lukewarm public reception.

Josh’s film "Marty Supreme" premiered as a surprise screening at the New York Film Festival in October and opened to both critical and commercial acclaim during the Christmas season, with many audiences and critics favorably comparing Josh’s solo directorial effort to Benny’s.

The Oscar nominations were announced on January 22 of this year. "Marty Supreme" scored a staggering nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet.

Meanwhile, "The Smashing Machine" earned only a single nomination, in the Makeup and Hairstyling category. As Josh’s name entered the center of Oscar-season buzz, this renewed attention prompted renewed scrutiny of the past and the possible reasons behind the brothers’ creative separation.

"Page Six," reports suggest that the roots of the separation date back to 2017, during the shooting of "Good Time," when a 17-year-old girl was cast to play a sex worker. As part of the Safdies’ vérité process, they are known for combining professional and non-professional actors to create authenticity. During this process, they, along with casting director Jennifer Venditti, cast actor Buddy Duress (who died in 2023 due to a heroin overdose) to act alongside Robert Pattinson.

Reports later suggested that Josh functioned as the primary decision-maker on set, rather than Benny, and that he became aware of the girl’s age only after the scene was shot, which was against the norms of the Screen Actors Guild of America.

Sebastian Bear-McClard, a producer on the film, was accused by Josh of casting the minor. The scene reportedly involved nudity and simulated sex between the girl and Buddy Duress, who was allegedly under the influence of narcotics at the time of filming. Josh was behind the monitor and Benny handled sound, with neither stopping the scene as it continued. After the scene was completed, the girl was reportedly traumatized.

As a result, the scene was removed before the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 to avoid further controversy. The issue resurfaced in 2022 during divorce proceedings between Sebastian Bear-McClard and his then-wife, actress Emily Ratajkowski, which led to renewed attention and claims about misconduct on the "Good Time" set.

It was later reported that the incident created a rift between the two brothers, which may have contributed to their separation. The brothers cut ties with Bear-McClard and continued their work on "Uncut Gems." Tensions escalated when the alleged victim spoke to "Variety" in 2023, accusing Bear-McClard of misinformation and coercion.

This raised questions about Josh Safdie’s role as a director and led to renewed attention on other alleged incidents, including one in 2017 when the brothers were directing a music video for Jay-Z and a child actor was reportedly kept on a rooftop after 1 a.m. A crew member claimed that Josh dismissed concerns and sent the child home only after he began crying.

Such allegations are often met with skepticism and are sometimes dismissed as smear campaigns, particularly when they surface during awards season.

However, Josh appears largely unaffected, as he is not considered a frontrunner for an Oscar win. The resurfacing of such controversies is not new in the industry, as seen in 2024 when Oscar-winning director Sean Baker faced accusations related to the absence of an intimacy coordinator on set, which were later debunked. On the other hand, similar situations have also resulted in negative outcomes, such as in early 2025 when "Emilia Perez" actress Karla Sofía Gascón faced backlash after past tweets accused of racism and Islamophobia resurfaced online.

The article has been authored by Yoga Adithya, an intern at Deccan Chronicle.