Overview
- Being Heumann will open the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026 and then play select theaters on November 6, 2026 before arriving on Apple TV+ on November 13, 2026.
- Sian Heder directed and co-wrote the film with Rebekah Taussig, adapting Judy Heumann’s bestselling memoir Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.
- Ruth Madeley, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, stars as Judy Heumann and had one recorded conversation with Heumann before the activist’s death in March 2023.
- The movie dramatizes Heumann’s leadership of the 1977 504 sit-ins that pushed the U.S. government to enforce Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which barred disability-based exclusion from federally funded programs.
- Apple is positioning the film for awards season but must follow new Academy requirements that call for initial runs in key U.S. markets plus an additional wider theatrical window before streaming to preserve Oscar eligibility.