Toronto film festival set to kick off with Apple's 'Being Heumann'
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The Toronto International Film Festival will kick off its 2026 edition with Academy Award winner Sian Heder’s big screen adaptation of Judy Heumann’s bestselling memoir Being Heumann .
Set to be distributed by Apple Original Films, Being Heumann tells the story of disability rights activist Judy Heumann, who led over a hundred disabled people in a nearly month-long sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. Her mission was to push officials to enforce the Rehabilitation Act, which was passed to outlaw discrimination against disabled people in federally funded buildings.
A quadriplegic since childhood, Heumann’s role as a disability rights crusader helped her become internationally known as the “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement.”
“It was a very important provision because it would mean, for example, that you could not discriminate against someone with a disability in preschool, in elementary school, in high school, at universities, in hospitals, in government,” Heumann, who died in 2023, told the BBC in 2020. “And if in fact discrimination occurred, you would have a remedy. You could go to court. You could file a complaint.”
BAFTA nominee Ruth Madeley plays Heumann with Mark Ruffalo portraying attorney Joseph Califano.
“What an unbelievable honour to play The Mother of Disability Rights, an icon and powerhouse to the disabled community,” Madeley said in a statement after she landed the role. “Judy has always been a source of inspiration for me personally and I am so excited to share her story with the world. This is truly the role of a lifetime.”
“We’re thrilled to open this year’s Festival with Sian Heder’s inspiring follow-up to her Oscar-winning CODA ,” says Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF . “ Being Heumann features an electric performance from Ruth Madeley in the story of Judy Heumann, a world-changing advocate for accessibility.”
Heder’s previous collaboration with Apple, 2021’s CODA , which centred on the child of deaf adults, won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur and Best Adapted Screenplay for Heder’s script. Heder also executive produced the Apple TV series Little America .
CODA was also an award-winner at Sundance and helped Heder nab an overall deal with Apple.
‘People love movies here’
Since 2005, 15 films that have screened for Canadian audiences first at TIFF have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, including last year’s winner, Anora .
“People love movies here, but it’s not a snobbish film audience,” Bailey says of festival-goers.
In addition to Being Heumann , organizers also announced that the Festival will host the world premieres of Prima Facie , starring Cynthia Erivo and celebrated South Korean director Hur Jin-ho’s The Assassin(s) .
“We’re also glad to reveal the news that Toronto audiences will be the first to see Cynthia Erivo in Susanna White’s searing legal drama Prima Facie , and that the South Korean power duo of director Hur Jin-ho and superstar Lee Min-ho will launch their thriller The Assassin(s) at our 51st Festival,” Bailey adds.
Prima Facie casts Erivo in an adaptation of Suzie Miller’s play that follows a lawyer who defends clients accused of sexual assault.
The Assassin(s) is a political thriller set during the 1974 attempted assassination of Korean president Park Chung-hee.
More film premieres will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10–20.