Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Josh Safdie, who co-wrote it with Ronald Bronstein. Set in the 1950s, it stars Timothée Chalamet as table tennis player Marty Mauser (loosely based on Marty Reisman) and follows his quest to become world champion. Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher appear in supporting roles.
Safdie and Bronstein began developing the film in 2018 after Safdie was given a copy of Reisman's 1974 memoir, The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. Safdie met with Chalamet in 2018 and offered him the lead role. Following a multi-year development period, the project was officially announced in July 2024. It marks Safdie's first solo directorial effort since The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008), having directed together with his brother Benny their following five films. Cinematographer Darius Khondji shot on 35 mm film stock and Safdie's regular collaborator Daniel Lopatin composed the score. Production design was led by Jack Fisk.
Marty Supreme premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025, and was released in the United States on December 25 by A24. It received critical acclaim and was a box-office success, grossing $192 million worldwide and becoming one of A24's highest-grossing films, as well as the year’s highest grossing independent film. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute each named it one of their top ten films of 2025. It was also nominated for several awards, including nine at the 98th Academy Awards and eleven at the 79th British Academy Film Awards.2026 Oscars Snubs & Surprises:Timothée Chalamet and ‘Marty Supreme’ Win Nothing, ‘Sinners’ Casting Director Misses and More – Variety Chalamet won Best Actor at the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice for his performance.
Plot
In New York City in 1952, Marty Mauser works as a shoe salesman at his uncle Murray's shop while also competing professionally as a table tennis player. Marty dreams of winning the British Open to bring American attention to the sport. He also pitches selling orange "Marty Supreme" novelty table tennis balls to his friend Dion and Dion's businessman father, and is having an affair with his married childhood friend Rachel Mizler. When Murray refuses to give Marty the $700 he had promised Marty for his London trip, he robs the shop's vault.
In London, Marty is unhappy with the players' barracks inn and stays instead at the Ritz Hotel, where he seduces former actress Kay Stone and meets her wealthy husband and pen tycoon, Milton Rockwell. Marty defeats defending champion Bela Kletzki in the semi-finals but loses the final to Koto Endo, a deaf Japanese player. Marty then tours internationally with Kletzki, performing as a halftime novelty act for the Harlem Globetrotters. Rockwell sees the business value for table tennis and offers Marty an exhibition match against Endo in Tokyo before the World Championship, but Marty angrily refuses upon learning he would be expected to throw the match to appease Japanese audiences.
Back in New York, Marty is arrested for stealing from Murray but escapes and reconnects with Rachel, learning she is pregnant, though he refuses to believe that it is his child. While staying in a run-down hotel with his friend Wally, Marty discovers he has been banned from the World Championships unless he pays a $1,500 fine for fraudulently expensing his Ritz stay. Marty's bathtub collapses through the floor, injuring mobster Ezra Mishkin, who pays Marty to take his dog Moses to a veterinarian. Marty instead hustles patrons at a bowling alley with Wally to raise the money. The bowlers later attack them at a gas station but they escape, damaging Wally's taxi and setting the station on fire. Moses runs away during the scuffle.
Rockwell returns to New York, having financed a play to relaunch Kay's career. After having sex with Kay, Marty attempts to pawn a necklace he stole from her, only to learn it is costume jewelry. Rachel comes to Marty with a black eye alleging her husband was responsible, prompting Marty to assault him. Marty and Rachel stay with Dion, who reveals he had produced the novelty balls but Marty failed to follow up. Marty and Rachel steal Dion's car and attempt to find Moses to extort Mishkin, but flee after being shot at by a farmer who has taken Moses in. Dion throws them out for stealing and damaging his car and discards the balls. Marty learns Rachel faked her black eye to manipulate him and leaves her. Rachel returns to her home, but when she confesses to her husband the baby isn't his, he throws her out.
At the opening of Kay's play, Marty apologizes for stealing her jewelry. Though she sees through him, Kay gives him a valuable necklace to pay his fine and travel. After being caught having sex in Central Park, they bribe the police with the necklace. Kay agrees to give Marty another necklace and reenters the party to retrieve it, but breaks down after receiving a bad review of the play. With Kay indisposed, Marty begs Rockwell to revive the Tokyo exhibition offer. Rockwell agrees after making Marty submit to a humiliating public spanking.
Before Marty leaves, he and Rachel are kidnapped by Mishkin after Rachel attempts to con him. Mishkin forces them to take him to the farmhouse where Moses was found. A shootout ensues in which the farmer kills one of Mishkin's henchmen, and leaves Mishkin and the other bleeding to death. The farmer is also killed in the process, and Rachel is gravely wounded. Before leaving, Marty robs Mishkin and discovers his reward money is mostly clippings from pornography magazines. He takes Rachel to the hospital as she goes into premature labor, and then leaves for Tokyo.
In Japan, Marty learns he is too late to enter the World Championship even if he pays his fine. He loses the exhibition match to Endo as planned, but when Rockwell plans to further humiliate him by making him kiss a pig on-stage, Marty announces that the contest was a sham. He successfully demands a real rematch, which he narrowly wins. Refused passage by Rockwell on the figurative basis that "(he is) a vampire, born in 1601", Marty instead flies home with U.S. Army soldiers. After reuniting with his mother at the hospital, Marty sees Rachel asleep and embraces her with a kiss followed by breaking down in tears upon meeting his newborn child.
Cast
Production Background and development Josh Safdie's interest in table tennis began in his youth, as his grandparents often had "eccentric Jewish immigrant Lower East Side characters" playing the sport at their house. In 2018, Safdie's wife and executive producer on the film, Sara Rossein, bought a copy of table tennis player Marty Reisman's 1974 autobiography The Money Player, thinking Safdie would enjoy it. Safdie was in conversations with Timothée Chalamet at the time, as they had recently become friends, and presented him the project by focusing on Reisman's physical similarities to the actor. Chalamet accepted the role and began taking table tennis lessons that same year. Chalamet named Robert Rossen's The Hustler (1961) and Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986) as references for the film.
In December 2023, Chalamet said his next film would involve table tennis. By July 2024, the project was confirmed as Marty Supreme, to be directed by Safdie, his first solo project without his brother Benny since The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008). Safdie and Ronald Bronstein wrote the script based on Reisman's life, though "sources close to the production" called the story "a fictionalized original, rather than a biopic". They wrote backstories for every person that appeared on the film. The film was produced by Central Pictures and IPR.VC in addition to A24.
Casting Safdie wrote the roles played by Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma, and Abel Ferrara with them in mind. However, it was speculated that Julia Roberts had been offered Paltrow's part first, but turned it down. Kevin O'Leary was pursued by Safdie and Bronstein due to his persona in the ABC reality television series Shark Tank (2009–present); they flew out to O'Leary's home to watch him read for the role. Khondji said the film featured around 140 non-actors, including French highwire artist Philippe Petit. Casting director Jennifer Venditti had previously scouted Isaac Simon and Odessa A'zion; Luke Manley was discovered by the team on social media; Isaac Mizrahi was suggested by Safdie, who knew him. Venditti scouted Ralph Colucci at a horse track, as indicated by the backstory Safdie had written for his character. Yale professor Paul Grimstad appeared at the behest of Bronstein, as they were roommates in the late 1990s; Grimstad had previously appeared in Bronstein's film Frownland (2007). Mitchell Wenig was cast as a henchman; he is a friend of Safdie's who previously appeared in Safdie's Uncut Gems (2019) and Adam Sandler: Love You (2024).
The former basketball player Joe Johnson was flown to New York to appear in the film, but did not arrive on set. Professional ping-pong player Wally Green was cast in a small speaking role, but his scene was cut. Venditti set up a ping-pong table to use during improvisational setups as part of the casting process. During post-production, Safdie got Robert Pattinson to make a cameo appearance as the voice of an off-screen British Open umpire. Mordechai Rubinstein, a New York City fashion blogger, and friend of Safdie, appears uncredited as a shoe store salesman. Kim Hastreiter, co-founder of Paper, a New York City magazine, was cast by Venditti and appears uncredited as a shoe store customer.
Production design Safdie contacted veteran production designer Jack Fisk to work on the project. Having been inspired by the Ken Jacobs film Orchard Street (1955) after seeing a screening at the Museum of Modern Art, Fisk and the film's crew reportedly studied the film in preparation for creating Marty Supreme's sets. To match the 1950s New York City setting, Fisk and his team built several pieces to block modern buildings and signs, including a delivery truck for Jewish newspaper The Forward, using old reference photos for the design. The original Forward building also appeared in the background of several scenes alongside the truck. Fisk was able to build the Lawrence's Broadway Table Tennis Club, which was demolished, with help from blueprints and black-and-white photos. Rossein was able to get a 16mm recording of the building which gave them an idea of the color palette. Even though Norkin's Shoe Shop, where Marty works, was a real location, the crew built modular units of the storefront to avoid a modern hotel nearby. For the scenes set in Auschwitz, the crew built the barracks inside the same New Jersey house they used to film a scene featuring a farm. Safdie wanted the city to feel real, and became obsessed with the garbage on the streets in particular. Set decorator Adam Willis proposed wetting the trash, so the actors felt the grit of the environment their characters lived in. Safdie wanted Fisk to paint Marty's room white or off-white but Fisk declined to do so as it would not be period-accurate.Ringer Movie podcast clip
Filming Principal photography began in New York City on September 23, 2024, with set photos of Chalamet released the following week. Production wrapped on December 5, 2024, with, according to Odessa A'zion, a scene between her and Fran Drescher being filmed. Additional filming later took place in Japan in February 2025. Only key members of the crew traveled to the country, and a Japanese crew was hired, having only a week of prep before shooting.