Film festival season is here and that means plenty of movies from around the world vying for Oscar buzz and award season leverage. Apple TV joined the race when it debuted its latest drama at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Being Heumann, directed by Siân Heder, kicked off TIFF as the opening night film, making its World Premiere at back-to-back screenings. The crowd-pleasing drama chronicles a pivotal time in the history of the United States and has all the makings of an Oscar contender. Here’s what you need to know, and when you can catch this film on the streamer.
- Price
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$13 per month
- Free trial
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7 day free trial and 3 months free if you buy an Apple device
- Simultaneous streams
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6
- # of profiles
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6
- Originals
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Yes
- Live TV:
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Limited (There are live sports and some add-on channels offer live TV)
Being Heumann is funny, dramatic, and stirring
Being Heumann follows disability rights activist Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley), a fearless and vocal woman from Brooklyn who uses a wheelchair since a polio diagnosis in childhood. The year is 1977, and Heumann, along with a collective of other disabled activists, including Blind and Deaf people, are desperately awaiting the signing of a law that would provide protections for and guarantee rights to all disabled Americans.
Heumann’s main adversary is Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano, played by a delightfully smarmy Mark Ruffalo, who talks a lot about how expensive it will cost to retrofit the entire country with ramps. And so, gaining little headway, Heumann and her group enter a federal HEW building in San Francisco and begin an occupation on the fourth floor. It’s a move that was premeditated by Heumann, but one that she didn’t tell anyone about.
While there is some discussion around Heumann and her tactics, especially when contrasted by the sweeter and quieter Kitty (Madeline Delp), this isn’t a film solely about her. The title is misleading, and clearly created for the pun it created, and that works, but the movie does an incredible job of highlighting countless other activists joining the fight. The diverse group, which features people of different disabilities, sexualities, races, and ages, is shown prominently and unapologetically.
Being Heumann shows discomfort, distress, and some police abuse, but it doesn’t want to be a downer. It’s a movie about resilience, and it packed this story into a very palatable two-hours loaded with needle drops and plenty of laughs from an exasperated Mark Ruffalo. The film is faithful, indeed, but highlights camaraderie and positivity and doesn’t get too involved in more nuanced conversations. There are a couple of moments where the film wades into complexity, such as when a Blind man tells Judy that lowering curbs actually makes his life worse, but it doesn’t want to get too difficult for the viewer.
Which is fine. Being Heumann is certainly the biggest mainstream film to feature this many disabled actors who are given named characters who are given the chance to joke, cry, goof off, and fool around. It’s definitely been a long time coming, and as the movie acknowledges, there is so much more progress that needs to be made. This movie is definitely going to generate a lot of conversation, with support and backlash and then backlash to that backlash. But ultimately, it’s a nice, palatable mainstream film that centers people long left out of the mainstream.
How can you watch Being Heumann?
You won’t have to wait long to watch at home
Being Heumann is playing at TIFF, and it will take a bit of time for viewers to watch it at home. The movie is set to drop on Apple TV on November 13. The release date puts it in prime window for Oscar buzz movies, making it available ahead of the holiday blockbuster season, giving audiences plenty of time to check it out ahead of awards season.
It likely won’t have a ton of competition. It coincides with a Christmas movie, the laughably-titled Ebenezer, which confused fans when it was announced this past summer. I’d recommend staying home and checking out Being Heumann and waiting a couple more weeks for some better holiday movies to come out.
If you like Being Heumann, check out CODA
The Best Picture winner is available on Apple TV
The main parallel to Being Heumann would be CODA as they share the same director (and streaming platform). CODA is a coming-of-age story about a family of Deaf parents and their two children, one of whom can hear. CODa would go on to win a slew of awards across the circuit, most notably Best Adapted Screenplay for Siân Heder, Best Supporting Actor for Tony Kotsur, and Best Picture.
It was released in 2021, and continues to be available to stream on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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September 10, 2026
- Runtime
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127 minutes
- Director
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Siân Heder
- Producers
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David Permut, Diana Pokorny, Kevin J. Walsh, John W. Beach, Judith Heumann, James Albrecht, Kristen Joiner, Kevin Cleary
Cast
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Ruth Madeley
Judith ‘Judy’ Heumann
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Mark Ruffalo
Joseph Califano
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Rob Delaney
Congressman Miller
