Benny Safdie

Safdie was born to Amy and Alberto Safdie; of Syrian Jewish descent and was raised in New York.^[2] He and brother Josh divided their childhood living between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan upon their parents' divorce.^[2] He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School^[2] and graduated from the Boston University College of Communication in 2008.

The Safdies' first feature was the 2009 film Daddy Longlegs, which they also wrote the screenplay and edited together.^[3] The film was showcased in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.^[4] In 2013, they debuted the documentary film Lenny Cooke at the Tribeca Film Festival,^[5] a documentary they became attached to after Cooke approached them to review the footage.^[6] In 2014, the pair premiered their next film Heaven Knows What at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.^[7] In February 2016, the brothers began filming their crime thriller film Good Time. which Benny starred in alongside Robert Pattinson, in New York City.^[8] It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.^[9] Benny, for his performance, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.^[10]

Uncut Gems, Josh and Benny's next film, starred Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield and Julia Fox and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese.^[11] The brothers won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and Benny shared the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing with Ronald Bronstein, with whom he co-edited with on all the Safdie brother films.^[12]

Safdie and Nathan Fielder co-created the Showtime series The Curse, which premiered in November 2023.^[13]

In 2017, Safdie began taking on performances not directed by himself or Josh, appearing in a role in the film Person to Person.^[14] In 2020, he appeared in Pieces of a Woman,^[15] and in 2021 had a large supporting role in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza.^[16]

In 2022, Safdie appeared in Claire Denis' romantic thriller Stars at Noon,^[17] and as Nari in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.^[18] In 2023, he starred in the film adaptation Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.,^[19] and appears as Edward Teller in Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan.^[20]

Safdie is Jewish. His father was born in Italy, raised in France and is of Sephardic-Jewish and Syrian-Jewish descent.^{[2][21][22][23]} His mother is of Russian-Jewish descent.^[24] His great uncle is architect Moshe Safdie. His cousin once removed is playwright Oren Safdie.^[25]

He is married to Ava Safdie (née Rawski), with whom he has two sons, Cosmo and Murray James.^[26]

Benny Safdie only

Film

Television

• Benny Safdie at IMDb
• Red Bucket Films Archived November 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine