‘Marty Supreme’ Trailer: Timothée Chalamet Becomes a Best Actor Frontrunner in A24’s Ping-Pong Epic

For an actor who has already played a rock star, a prince and Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet has found an unexpectedly electrifying new arena: a 1950s ping-pong table.

A24’s newly released official trailer for Marty Supreme showcases Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a wiry, hyper-focused table-tennis prodigy fighting his way from smoky New York basements to the sport’s world stage. Within hours of the trailer dropping, awards watchers were calling the film a dark-horse contender – and Chalamet himself a Best Actor frontrunner.

Directed by Josh Safdie, working solo for the first time since 2008, the film has quickly become one of the most closely watched titles of the 2025 awards season.

From backroom hustler to table-tennis legend

Inspired by the life of real-world ping-pong icon Marty Reisman, Marty Supreme is set in 1950s New York, following a hustler-turned-champion whose talent is constantly underestimated.

In the trailer we see Chalamet’s Marty moving through a city of neon and nicotine:

• Hustling rich opponents in smoky clubs.

• Trading trash talk and trick shots in backroom games.

• Gradually clawing his way into polite society – and the international table-tennis circuit – with a paddle in hand.

Safdie’s signature tension is everywhere: the camera crowds the table, the ball is a bullet, and every rally feels like a life-or-death negotiation. Fans of Uncut Gems will recognise the same nerve-jangling energy, now channelled into a sport usually associated with youth clubs and office break rooms.

Timothée Chalamet’s “ping-pong method acting”

Chalamet hasn’t simply learned a few stylish serves. According to production notes and interviews, he spent six to seven years quietly training in table tennis ahead of the shoot, beginning in 2018.

The trailer makes that preparation obvious:

• His footwork and grip look like those of a seasoned player, not a CGI-assisted cheat.

• He switches from swaggering confidence to full psychological unraveling mid-match, giving the rallies the emotional stakes of boxing bouts.

At a secret screening at the New York Film Festival, where the film premiered to a standing ovation, Chalamet called Marty Supreme “a love letter to New York” as much as to its eccentric ping-pong underworld.

Awards analysts have been quick to respond. Variety’s Clayton Davis compared the film’s trajectory to its protagonist’s arc – underestimated at first, now potentially the “spoiler the Oscar race didn’t know it needed.” Critics in Spain went further, calling Chalamet’s turn “the best performance of his career” and predicting strong awards momentum.

A cast that blends Hollywood, New York and pop culture

Part of the trailer’s thrill is how delightfully strange the supporting cast is. Alongside Chalamet, Marty Supreme features:

• Gwyneth Paltrow as an elegant Upper East Side love interest with more power than she initially reveals.

• Tyler Okonma (Tyler, the Creator) in his first major film role, sparring with Chalamet both at the table and in sharply written locker-room scenes.

• Fran Drescher and Penn Jillette adding New York colour and comedic bite.

• Cameos from Kevin O’Leary (“Mr Wonderful”), Odessa A’zion and cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara, deepening the film’s mix of high and low culture.

The result feels very A24: a prestige art film that also winks at internet culture, celebrity persona and the oddness of sports fame.

Josh Safdie’s solo return – and a very A24 awards play

Marty Supreme is the first feature Josh Safdie has directed alone since 2008’s The Pleasure of Being Robbed. In the intervening years he and his brother Benny became synonymous with high-anxiety New York cinema through Good Time and Uncut Gems.

Here, working from a script co-written with long-time collaborator Ronald Bronstein, he appears to be stretching the template: still restless and nervy, but with flashes of romantic melancholy and a more classical sports-movie spine.

The film is scored by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), whose synth-heavy, prismatic work for the Safdies has become almost a character in its own right. In the trailer, his music turns every serve into a drumbeat and every rally into a rave.

A24, meanwhile, is treating Marty Supreme like a flagship: inventive marketing campaigns, surprise festival screenings, and a meta “rollout” in which Chalamet has appeared in surreal teaser clips and even a satirical 18-minute Zoom sketch roasting Hollywood promotion itself.

Awards-season positioning: the dark horse to watch

In a year with several heavyweight contenders projecting double-digit nomination totals, Marty Supreme was initially expected to be a stylish outlier. The new trailer has changed that calculus. Awards writers now routinely mention:

• Best Actor buzz for Chalamet

• Potential recognition in Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Score

• Below-the-line heat for its period production design and editing

The film’s David-versus-Goliath energy – both on the table-tennis court and in the awards conversation – is part of the appeal. Much like Marty Mauser, Marty Supreme is being framed as the outsider that might just outplay the favourites.

Release date and where Niche readers can see it

Marty Supreme premiered with that buzzy secret screening at the 63rd New York Film Festival in October and will open in cinemas in the US on 25 December 2025, with international dates, including the UK, expected to follow early in 2026.

For Niche Magazine UK readers, it looks like the rare sports film that satisfies both cinephiles and awards obsessives:

• Pure visual craft from Safdie and A24

• A chameleonic, full-bodied turn from Chalamet

• A supporting cast that feels like a New York fever dream

• And at the centre, a story about ambition, obsession and the price of greatness – told through the smallest ball in sport.

If the trailer is any indication, ping pong has never looked so luxurious, or so lethal.