TIFF 51st Edition Sets Siân Heder’s ‘Being Heumann’ As Opening Night Film
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- TIFF named Apple Original Films' "Being Heumann" as the opening night film of its 51st edition, set to debut Thursday, Sept. 10 at Roy Thomson Hall ahead of the festival's Sept. 10-20 run.
- Director Siân Heder, fresh off her CODA Oscar win, adapts disability activist Judy Heumann's bestselling memoir with Ruth Madeley starring; the film dramatizes a 1977 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building that forced enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- Supporting cast on "Being Heumann" includes Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O'Brien, Jon Beavers, Rob Delaney and Ray Fisher, with David Permut, Heder, John W. Beach, Kevin Cleary and Kevin J. Walsh producing.
- Cynthia Erivo stars in "Prima Facie," a Susanna White-directed adaptation of Suzie Miller's Olivier-winning play originally headlined by Jodie Comer on the West End and Broadway; Embankment Films handled global sales from Cannes 2025.
- Hur Jin-ho's "The Assassin(s)" — a 1974-set thriller about the attempted assassination of Korean president Park Chung-hee starring Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho — will also world premiere at TIFF 51.
- TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey called "Being Heumann" an "inspiring follow-up" to Heder's Oscar-winning work and praised Madeley's "electric performance"; last year's festival drew 700,000 attendees, with "TIFF: The Market" newly added as an industry-deal component.
Why it matters: TIFF's 51st edition — building on last year's 700,000 attendees — hands Apple Original Films its opening-night spotlight with an Oscar-winner-helmed disability rights drama positioned as an awards-season entry, while debuting a new industry market alongside its public screenings.
