Benny Safdie Wins Best Director For The Smashing Machine At Venice Film Festival

Benny Safdie is a Best Director winner at the Venice Film Festival for The Smashing Machine starring The Rock. The festival announced on Saturday that Safdie won the Silver Lion for directing the Mark Kerr biopic, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson & Emily Blunt and is set to open on October 3rd.

Johnson posted to his Instagram account to share video of the announcement, writing:

“We got very emotional because an incredible thing happened to a beautiful human being tonight

Congratulations Benny Safdie @bowedtie for winning the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival for directing, “The Smashing Machine”

Benny’s singular and signature vision for “The Smashing Machine” was to create a real experience for the audience of radical empathy, through raw human vulnerability.

We love you brother and congratulations, now come on home – you got big hugs (and tequila;) waiting for you”

The film has garnered a fair amount of buzz for the upcoming awards season.

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A post shared by Dwayne Johnson (@therock)