Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543327
24's Marty Supreme stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a bold, fast-talking dreamer in 1952 New York City, who has aspirations of becoming the world's top table-tennis player. He's currently stuck selling shoes in his uncle's Lower East Side store, and has very little support from family or friends. Still, he is hellbent on turning the overlooked sport into his personal springboard to glory. In addition to Chalamet, the film fea- tures Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma, Kevin O'Leary, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Emory Cohen and Odessa A'zion. Director Josh Safdie co-wrote the original feature with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Marty Supreme re- ceived nine Oscar nominations for the 98 th Annual Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role, Cinematography, Directing and Editing. The project was shot on 35mm film by Darius Khondji, who used Arriflex cameras and vintage anamorphic lenses. Khondji previously worked with Safdie on Uncut Gems. Also reuniting with the filmmaker was composer Daniel Lopatin, who scored Safdie's Good Time and Uncut Gems. Both Safdie and Bronstein partnered to complete the edit. Skip Lievsay worked with Safdie on Uncut Gems, and came onboard as Marty Supreme's re-recording mixer/supervis- ing sound editor. Lievsay, who will be honored by the Cinema Audio Society with its 2026 Career Achievement Award on March 7 th , says the feature has similar- ities to both an action film and a docu- mentary. Here, he shares insight into the film's soundtrack, its tight deadline and some of the challenges that it presented. Skip, you served as both re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor. Tell us about your responsibilities on Marty Supreme. "Well, it's actually kind of a campaign, basically. I have a co-supervising sound editor, Paul Urmson, who is also my co-re-recording mixer. We basically divide it up and had a lot of tasks to do. A lot of things to record. A lot of sound effects and voices. And the way we divide it up is just by sheer volume of stuff. He deals with all the sound effects and Foley, as well as production sound effects — things recorded on location. And I deal with di- alog, ADR, and then during the mix, I mix dialog and music, and Paul mixes all of his sound effects." Where was audio post taking place? "We've been working at Warner Bros. in New York for about 13 or so years — 14 years maybe. This is my editing room. We edit on Pro Tools. We also mix in a Pro Tools studio. We do the theatrical mix here. It's a pretty big room. It's one of the biggest rooms in New York. And we prefer to mix the theatrical mix first, and then all the smaller mixes. We keep crashing it down, smaller and smaller, until finally we have stereo mix. [It's] the last thing we do. And we do the foreign (mix) as well, so we have to do theatrical Atmos foreign, and then we keep crash- ing that down and make all the versions of the foreign mix as well." How did you get involved in this project? "Well, in this case, I was lucky enough to meet Josh (Safdie) on Uncut Gems." Marty is a fast talker, and this film has a lot going on in terms of dialog. Was that a challenge? "Yes. It's kind of like an action movie with dialog instead of gunshots. It's rapid fire. Dialog, conversations, there's a lot of material. A lot of things are happening in Marty's life, and he's a man on a mission. He's not always equipped with gear and money and what they call 'agency' to get where he wants to go. He's just kind of desperate to stay on his track and a lot of that is expressed with dialog. Of course in the big scenes, there's a lot of crowd sounds, and there's various languages, especially at the end when we're in Japan. We have this Japanese crowd to create and articulate. And the announcer throughout that whole sequence — to make it sound like he's there, but also to not make it so harsh and distracting from the action. We want to make sure that the announcer's sort of more in the background. "(He) keeps the rhythm going and keeps reminding us where we are and how this is a such a pinnacle for Marty. It's very busy, and it also is quite loud. A lot of places, there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of great music happen- ing. And there's a lot of important and informative dialog. So it's really an action film with talking and music." There are a few scenes that come to mind. You mention the competition, but the restaurant scene is pretty intense too. "I think the filmmaker, Josh, he likes to be able to have his exposition. He likes to be able to direct the audience which way they're looking. And he likes to tell a story. But at the same time, he wants to remind everyone where we are. That this is a reality, basically. This is happening in a place. It's almost like a documentary in many cases. And he likes to have the surrounding information surrounding the storytelling so that it feels real. He doesn't want to make a documentary, but he wants the feel of a documentary, where things are happening. Unexpected sounds are bursting in here and there. MARTY SUPREME BY MARC LOFTUS RE-RECORDING MIXER/ SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR SKIP LIEVSAY REUNITES WITH FILMMAKER JOSH SAFDIE A SOUNDTRACK www.postmagazine.com 16 POST JAN/FEB 2026 Director Josh Safdie with the film's star.