Benny Safdie

Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor and film editor best known for working with his older brother Josh as a filmmaker, whose works include Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019). Safdie was born to Amy and Alberto Safdie, he is Jewish and was raised in New York. He and brother Josh would divide their childhood living between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan upon their parents divorce. He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, 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. The film was showcased in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, they debuted the documentary film Lenny Cooke at the Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary they became attached to after Cooke approached them to review the footage. In 2014, the pair premiered their next film Heaven Knows What at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.