Hollywood filmmaker Josh Safdie is trending after his film Marty Supreme created a buzz with nine nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor (for Timothee Chalamet).Meanwhile, his younger brother, filmmaker and actor Benny Safdie’s movie The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt, only earned a single Oscar nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.It is noteworthy that Josh and Benny Safdie are a former directing duo known as the Safdie Brothers. Together, they made two crime thrillers, Good Time and Uncut Gems, in 2017 and 2019, respectively.However, the Safdie Brothers split “amicably” in January 2024 and went their separate ways. According to a recent report by Page Six Hollywood, producer Bear McClard hired a 17-year-old actress (from Instagram) to play the role of a prostitute on Good Time with a non-actor and recently released convict, Buddy Duress.Duress was reportedly “high” during the filming of the explicit scene in New York, and he had “exposed” himself in front of the underage girl. While Josh Safdie found out about her age after the scene was shot, when the actress was seemingly spiralling from a trauma, it took six more years for Benny to find that out, ending his creative partnership with his brother.It remains unclear why Josh Safdie hid the information from Benny Safdie for so long. However, insiders told Page Six Hollywood that the elder brother was in charge during the scene, while Benny stood in the corner holding the boom mic.Exploring further the circumstances behind Benny and Josh Safdie’s splitFollowing the announcement that he would no longer be working with his elder brother on directorial ventures, Benny Safdie, 39, appeared for an interview with The Playlist. He cited creative differences as the reason for their split, without mentioning the explicit scene drama onset featuring the teenage girl.“Well, I think it doesn’t seem like [the door is ajar] because we made some amazing movies together, and I learned so much — and he’s my brother. But I just got to the point where there were things I wanted to explore that he didn’t, and there were things he wanted to explore that I didn’t. And I thought, well, I’m going to go to the place where I’m excited.”Later, Benny Safdie told Variety in 2024:“It’s a natural progression of what we each want to explore. I will direct on my own, and I will explore things that I want to explore. I want that freedom right now in my life.”Benny also explained that they had a new sports film with Adam Sandler and Megan Thee Stallion in pre-production. However, he didn’t co-write the script nor was he a “meaningful part of the creative process.”Josh Safdie, 41, hasn’t spoken on the two-year-old split yet.According to Page Six Hollywood, non-actor Buddy Duress, whose real name was Michael Stathis, was just out of prison when he was cast on the Robert Pattinson-starrer Good Time. He had been jailed several times on charges including drug possession, weapons violation, fencing stolen property, and motor vehicle theft – dating back to 2009.During the controversial scene, Duress was reportedly under the influence and asked the 17-year-old girl whether he could “stick it in.” According to close sources, neither Benny nor Josh Safdie said “Cut!” until the end of the scene, despite the discomfort of the actress.“Any director who had seen that should have yelled ‘Cut!’ and stopped the scene, but Josh let it continue,” the onset source claimed.It is noteworthy that casting an underage girl in a s*x scene goes against the SAG-AFTRA rules, which cite that working conditions not be “detrimental to the health, morals, and safety of minors.”Duress later died of a heroin overdose in November 2023. Meanwhile, the controversial scene was edited out of the movie ahead of its premiere at the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival, citing “creative reasons.”According to the sources, Benny Safdie became aware of the drama only after their Good Time producer, Bear McClard, was embroiled in a nasty divorce and child custody battle with actress Emily Ratajkowski.Ratajkowski reportedly threatened to expose the dirty laundry from the sets of the film, including her husband’s affair with an actress, during the post production. Whether the said actress was the 17-year-old girl or someone else remains unclear.Regardless, the revelation reportedly triggered a “wedge” between Benny and Josh Safdie. While the latter held McClard accountable for recruiting a minor for an explicit scene, the producer denied responsibility, adding that he, too, was unaware of the girl’s age and was not behind background checks.In the wake of this, Safdie Brothers cut ties with Bear McClard. The trio previously founded the A24 production company. A source familiar with the entire incident told Page Six Hollywood:“You don’t all of a sudden develop a moral conscience six years later. Like that’s not how it works.”Benny and Josh Safdie continued to work through 2023 and wrapped up their Adam Sandler-starrer, Uncut Gems, for Netflix. They also executive-produced Andy Kaufman's Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God and the HBO docuseries Telemarketers. Following this, they reportedly parted ways and announced the same in early 2024.According to online rumors, the rift between the Safdie Brothers may have also been their differing political views, the past WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and their getting into trouble for trying to bypass the industry/ labor norms.For instance, during the 2017 music video shoot of Jay-Z’s Our Block, Benny and Josh Safdie faced controversy for keeping a child artist on a rooftop past midnight, which went beyond the stipulated eight hours. The kid reportedly cried on set and wished to return home.Likewise, Timothee Chalamet revealed in a recent Q&A session that one of the non-actors on the set of Marty Supreme threatened him, saying he wouldn’t want to “f**k with me” or make him “angry,” citing he was “just in jail for 30 years.” Whether Josh Safdie did anything to reprimand him remains undisclosed.While Josh Safdie stuck with solo directing, his younger brother has also tried his hand at acting on big-budget projects, including Oppenheimer, Are You There God? Its Me Margaret, Happy Gilmore 2, and Licorice Pizza. Benny also co-created and starred in The Curse with Nathan Fielder.Notably, DGA prevents any director duo from getting back together after their split, according to Ladbible.