The Toronto International Film Festival opened its 51st edition this week with "Being Heumann," Siân Heder's follow-up to her Oscar-winning "CODA," kicking off ten days of premieres at Roy Thomson Hall. The film, which stars Ruth Madeley as disability-rights activist Judy Heumann and Mark Ruffalo as a federal official who opposed her, drew a standing ovation from the opening-night crowd.
"Being Heumann" centers on the 1977 sit-in at a San Francisco federal building, a 25-day occupation that remains the longest of its kind in American history and helped force enforcement of disability-rights protections under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The cast also includes Daniel Durant and Ali Stroker alongside Ray Fisher and Dylan O'Brien.
TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said the film was a natural choice to open the festival's public program.
We're thrilled to open this year's Festival with Siân Heder's inspiring follow-up to her Oscar-winning CODA. Being Heumann features an electric performance from Ruth Madeley in the story of Judy Heumann, a world-changing advocate for accessibility.
Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO
Heder, addressing the audience after the screening, said she wanted the film to land at a moment when disability rights and other hard-won protections feel newly contested.
We are living in a time when a lot of groups of people are getting left behind. The rights that many people fought for in the 1970s are under threat, and it is easy to feel helpless.
Siân Heder, director
A bigger festival, and a new market
This year's festival, running through Sept. 20, is showing 293 feature films and 45 shorts, including 32 world premieres, according to The Hollywood Reporter's opening-night coverage. The lineup also includes Zack Snyder's "The Last Photograph," Anton Corbijn's "A Talent for Murder," and Courteney Cox's directorial feature "Evil Genius," starring David Harbour. The 2026 edition also marks the launch of TIFF: The Market, a new industry marketplace at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre backed by a 23-million-Canadian-dollar federal investment through Telefilm Canada — an expansion organizers hope will let Toronto compete more directly with Cannes and Sundance for sales business, not just premieres.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow used opening night to highlight a smaller but symbolic change: the festival's red carpet was made fully accessible for the first time, a detail organizers said they intend to carry into future years rather than treat as a one-off tied to this year's opening film, per reporting from Now Toronto.
With Apple backing the film's distribution, "Being Heumann" is already being discussed in early awards-season chatter as a contender heading into the fall festival circuit, which continues through Telluride, New York and eventually the Oscar nominations announcement early next year. One outlet's rundown of the disability-rights framing behind the opening selection noted how unusual it is for a festival's marquee slot to go to an activism-centered biopic rather than a starrier awards vehicle.
