Sian Heder Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Oscar-winning CODA director Sian Heder argues Being Heumann, her new film about disability rights that opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, is timely because “collective action matters.”
“We are living in a time when a lot of groups of people are getting left behind,” Heder told festivalgoers at the Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday night. “The rights that many people fought for in the 1970s are under threat, and it is easy to feel helpless,” she added before a local audience showing a groundswell of patriotism amid Donald Trump’s cross-border trade and tariffs war with Canada.
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“I have been out on street with a cardboard sign many times this year, and thought does this even matter, does this protest matter. There’s so many battles on so many battles, it’s hard to know where to fight,” Heder said. She spoke to introduce Being Heumann, her Ruth Madeley-starring drama about protest leader Judy Heumman, who led a historic 1977 campaign that launched the disability-rights revolution in the U.S., which eventually led to the Americans With Disabilities Act.
“This film is what happens when people refused to be invisible,” Heder added before a post-premiere Q&A saw her bring onto the stage her cast of disability actors that played disabled people in her crowd-pleasing movie for Apple Original Films.
Madely said she was inspired by the opportunity to bring Judy Heumann’s ferocity and humor to the big screen.“Thank you for so much for trusting me with something so huge,” Madeley also told Heder after being offered her dream role.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow was also in attendance to help open the 2026 edition of TIFF. Chow didn’t name Trump directly, but pointed to the U.S. president recently renaming one of the Great Lakes on the U.S.-Canadian border as “Lake America” amid stalled efforts to negotiate a new cross-border trade deal.
“I am pleased to say our magnificent waterfront will always be Lake Ontario,” Chow said to loud applause. Trump’s trade war with Canada is expected to overshadow TIFF as around two-thirds of Canadian film and TV series exports go to the U.S. market, even as Canadians consume a host of Hollywood film and TV content north of the U.S. border.
The Toronto Film Festival will run through to Sept. 20.
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