Josh Safdie calls Marty Supreme ‘personal’ as family of real-life Marty allege that they never blessed the film | Hollywood News
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 6, 2026 08:26 PM IST
The awards season is almost about to come to a close with the Oscars and the BAFTAs right around the corner. During this season, director Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme is currently being considered as one of the favourites for the big awards. However, the dream of bagging the big awards seems to be going up in smoke, as controversies start to surround director Josh Safdie. One of them is the question around the origins of the story of Marty Supreme.
Yes, the film isn’t a page-by-page copy of real-life table tennis player Marty Reisman’s life, but there are too many similarities to simply let it go without question. According to a report by THR, the family of Reisman talked to the Daily Mail and said that they never blessed the movie or its story. They said that the studio behind the film, A24, “profited while externalising harm and invoked Marty’s name without attribution or compensation.”
According to the same report by THR, Josh Safdie grew up around table tennis, and several family members were involved with the sport at some level or the other. He always wanted to make a film about the sport, and one day his wife, Sara Rossein, brought him a copy of Reisman’s autobiography. She also served as an executive producer and researcher for the film, and once she handed Josh the book, he finally found the story he wanted to tell. However, he and his team argue that except for a few details, such as the appearance, they wrote a completely fictional script.
The similarities that have been pointed out by the world are called a “homage” by the director, and he recently talked about the story during an interview. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and the host asked him, “Where did it (the idea) come from?” Josh replied, “It’s a movie about a dreamer. A dreamer whose dreams no one respects. He is going to go to hell and back to try to pursue greatness. It’s about table tennis, and anything you can take seriously in life is worth pursuing.”
Before getting into the idea, Josh said, “As big as this movie is in terms of scope, it’s a personal movie, and all my films are personal.” While there might be some truth to what both the parties are saying, one thing is for certain… Marty Supreme and its Oscar run are being put through the wringer, and you just have to wonder who benefits from all this.
