Benny Safdie

Benny Safdie is an American director and is best known for Good Time (2017). Together with his brother and frequent collaborator Josh Safdie, there were born in New York and living between their father in Queens and their mother in Manhattan. Benny and Josh began making movies at a young age, inspired by their film-enthusiastic father. In 2007, Partners & Spade co-founder Andy Spade commissioned Josh Safdie to create a short film to promote Kate Spade Handbags. Together, Benny and Josh and their cohort submitted instead a feature-length script, which they began shooting with Spade's support. The film premiered at SXSW in March 2008. It also played at the Cannes sidebar Directors' Fortnight, along with a short film The Acquaintances of a Lonely John directed by Benny. Their second feature film, Daddy Longlegs, premiered at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes under an alternate title Go Get Some Rosemary in 2009 and played its American debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Lenny Cooke, their first full-length documentary premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. Also premiering at the Venice Film Festival was their feature film Heaven Knows What (2014) where it won the C.I.C.A.E Award. The Safdies received great critical acclaim and much wider attention with their crime-thriller Good Time (2017) starring Robert Pattinson as a low-life conman, trying to get his brother, played by Benny, out of prison. It premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Cannes Soundtrack Award.