The Smashing Machine vs. Marty Supreme: Two Brothers, Two Directors, One Oscar Race

This year’s Oscar conversation has an unusually fascinating twist: two brothers, both established filmmakers, releasing major films in the same awards cycle and each eying one of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards.

The Smashing Machine vs. Marty Supreme is not about competition for nominations. They share the same spotlight but give rise to one major question: Is it a sibling rivalry or shared success?​

A rare sibling showdown

Sibling success stories are not uncommon in Hollywood: the Russo brothers, the Duffer brothers, the Coen brothers, and the Wachowski siblings. Here, the brothers arrive as contemporaries, each with films that generate a separate awards conversation.

Releasing the same sports drama in the same year and with both films having A-list stars seems to be a direct competition between the Safdie brothers. Both films got their respective standing ovations at major film festivals: Marty Supreme wowed audiences in New York, while The Smashing Machine caused a stir in Venice.

The matchup is compelling not because of both the drama sports films they intended to release in the first place, but the shared roots with distinct storytelling, ambition, and cinematic craft.

Both of these were the same brothers who worked on a mutual project in the past. They started off their careers with their first feature, The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008), where Josh was in the director’s chair, and Benny only edited it.​

They directed their next three projects together, including 2017’s Good Time, which gained Robert Pattinson massive critical acclaim. Don’t forget Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems (2019), which again earned impressive Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

However, something happened afterwards, and the brothers decided to work separately.  ​

A pleasantly shocking surprise comes with Marty Supreme and The Smashing Machine, as both of them are distributed by the same studio, A24. Clever!​

The Smashing Machine: Film overview

The film is a biographical drama of the real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr, played by Dwayne Johnson. Set in the late 1990s, the unstoppable fighter suffered behind closed doors due to painkiller addiction and chronic injuries.

His chaotic relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), puts him under deep pressure. Staples still stays by his side, and his best friend Mark (Ryan Bader) helps him to come out the other side of his addictions.  ​

Watch the trailer here:​

Marty Supreme: Film overview​

This sports film is also about a real-life ping pong star, Marty Reisman, who died in 2012. Timothee Chalamet plays the role of Marty Mauser, who worked as a shoe salesman but aspired to be a world-famous table tennis player.​

He hustles to get funds for his dreams, often by risky means. After a crushing loss to a Japanese star, Marty is more determined than ever, as the film embraces a classic underdog arc, tracking a life defined by constant struggle and relentless fights.​

View the trailer here: 

The Smashing Machine vs. Marty Supreme: The brothers behind the camera

Growing up in the same creative environment, the Safdie brothers were exposed to similar influences. Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Josh Safdie disclosed that table tennis runs in his family. He said,​

“I really took to it, I think partially because of my ADD — in order to be a successful ping-pong player, you have to pay attention, and I found that the sport allowed me to do that.” [Source]

Josh Safdie’s wife introduced him to Marty Reisman’s autobiography, which became an inspiration for the formation of the fictional lead character, Marty Mauser. But in this fiction, he always wanted to show the true realities of human life. He revealed that he was “chasing imperfection of humanity.”

Often matched with his brother’s directorial style, Benny’s films also show frantic energy, intense immersion, and raw authenticity. He has a narrative approach filled with gritty realism and moments of surrealism.  

And here is the proof of what they can do individually:

	Director	IMDb	Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score	Rotten Tomatoes audience score
Marty Supreme	Josh Safdie	8.2	94 percent	83 percent
The Smashing Machine	Benny Safdie	6.4	70 percent	74 percent

Artistic vision: Style vs substance​

The two elements Academy always weighs differently, depending on the cultural moment, are style and substance. Each of these brother filmmakers has balanced both in their films, which presents a fascinating contrast.​

In The Smashing Machine, Benny highlights camera movements that show the characters with an extreme close-up. While he explained one of the scenes of the film, the director opened up on why he chose this method that clearly showed hand movements of Johnson with muted pallettes, and prosthetics mixed with Johnson’s own facial expressions.

It helped pull the viewers into the protagonist’s psychological and bodily turmoil. The direction portrayed a polished immersion, creating a sense of live-in authenticity to the scenes. This raw approach prioritizes emotional truth, the brutality and instability, all at the same time.​

On the other hand, Marty Supreme has a more composed visual strategy. In an interview, Josh Safdie agreed that the protagonist has a captivating character that undergoes an “identifiable arc,” which leaves the audience at an emotional high point when the film ends.​

This was possible only because taking inspiration from something that others might have deemed as “impossible” and dreaming of a “hard to achieve” goal, since Marty’s was like that, is something that makes it precious.

The audience was able to connect with Marty through Josh’s more deliberate and formally confident directorial style that used framing and pacing to guide the viewers through the story with clarity and momentum. The moments of tension led to triumph, but with precision. The measured style signals control- an element often regarded with great honor in traditional awards consideration.  ​

The Oscar Math​

The likely categories for each film for the upcoming Oscar nominations are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and many more. After gathering information from several well-known platforms, here is a mini-prediction box that has Oscar likely wins for each film:

The Smashing Machine	Best Actor: Dwayne Johnson Best Director: Benny Safdie Best Editing Best Screenplay Best Makeup Potential Supporting Actor nomination
Marty Supreme	Best Picture Best Director: Josh Safdie Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet Best Screenplay Best Ensemble Cast Best Supporting Actress

The Oscar math suggests two different paths to the success of these films. Historically, films like The Smashing Machine have secured major acting wins or director recognition. For example, Raging Bull (1980) won Best Actor for Robert De Niro, and Monster (2003) helped Charlize Theron secure the Best Actress award.​

Films like Marty Supreme that are full of solid emotional craft and clarity, fused with narrative satisfaction, tend to age well with the Academy’s voting process. In the past, Coda (2021) was a historic win as it was the first film with a predominantly deaf cast, shining with only heartwarming performances.

Studio backing also matters in the process of choosing Oscar film nominations. Campaign strategy may ultimately help tip the sales. The Smashing Machine might benefit from prestige-focused campaigns while Marty Supreme is suited to a broad, sustained campaign.​

The latter positions itself as a crowd-pleaser with an underdog narrative and relies heavily on audience reactions or repeat viewings. Such films could be personal likes of a small group of the Academy voters who passionately outweigh one film in their preference ballot.

Family rivalry or mutual triumph?​

In public, the brothers have been careful to frame this moment and have emphasized mutual respect. It was clarified by Josh Safdie in one of the reports that people are hungry for drama, but this is not the case between the two brothers. There is no enmity between them, deflecting attention from the competition for the two films arriving in the same awards season.

Nevertheless, the sibling rivalry is hard to ignore as the industry thrives on this narrative. Making comparisons and contrasts is what critics and award-watchers have always loved. This is the reflection of the award season frame, where head-to-head matchups in search of signs of stylistic superiority always exist.​

Whatever the outcome, an Oscar win for either of the brothers would still reflect a shared foundation that nurtured their careers. In such a volatile industry, longevity and relevance are hard-earned; the true victory lies in the conversations that both brothers put on the table, and now everyone is surely talking.

Final verdict: Who has the edge?

When a comparison between The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme is made, it should be understood that each film excels in different domains and appeals to different segments of Academy voters.

Awards season has always been unpredictable. An instant change of decision based on last-minute campaigning, shifting critical consensus, and unforeseen cultural influences changes the trajectory of a frontrunner. Hence, the edge is hard to identify as two stories have distinguishable strengths with clear-cut paths to recognition.  

​