TIFF announces Being Heumann as opening night film

The 2026 Toronto International shoot fete testament open up with the domain premiere of the biopic Being Heumann, organizers announced Tuesday. 

Also an acclaimed 2020 memoir of the same name, the Apple film from director Siân Heder follows the life of Judy Heumann, a prominent disability rights advocate, and is set to star Ruth Madeley in the titular role alongside Mark Ruffalo as former U.S. Health secretary Joseph Califano. 

Heder, whose CODA won best picture at the Oscars in 2022, will be the fourth woman to have a film open the festival, after Sally El Hosaini's The Swimmers in 2022, Deepa Mehta's Water in 2005 and Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing in 1987. 

Also announced Tuesday were the world premieres for two other films: Susanna White's Prima Facie and Hur Jin-ho's Assassin(s).

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Prima Facie, which stars Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, tells the story of a defence attorney of accused sexual offenders being sexually assaulted herself. It is being adapted from the one-woman stage play of the same name by Suzie Miller, who also wrote the screenplay.

Assassin(s), meanwhile, focuses on the real-life 1974 attempted assassination of the authoritarian South Korean president Park Chung-hee. According to Deadline, Park Hae-il (Decision to Leave, The Host) will play a news editor attempting to solve unanswered questions around the assassination attempt. 

TIFF will run this year from Sept. 10-20, with the slate of films for its 51st iteration to be announced Aug. 11. Last year's festival featured over 200 titles, as well as the North American or world premieres of some of the following year's buzziest releases — including Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, Curry Barker's horror success story Obsession and Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. 

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The 50th-anniversary iteration also marked somewhat of a return to form for the festival. Previous years were hampered by COVID-19, writers' and actors' strikes stifling film and star attendance, or even the death of Queen Elizabeth on the 2022 festival's opening day, causing some to question the festival's relevance.

However, when 2025 People's Choice winner Hamnet gained an Oscars nomination for best picture, it put TIFF back on track as an awards season bellwether.

Going back to 2008, every People's Choice winner went on to score the top Oscar nomination, except for two films: Where Do We Go Now? in 2011 and 2024's The Life of Chuck. That record has proven to be a strong selling point for TIFF's reputation as the "people's festival," swaying some studios to offer their biggest titles to a festival far more accessible than critic-focused events like Cannes or Venice.

Hamnet just won TIFF's People's Choice Award — a big boost to its chances for Oscar success

The 51st annual Toronto International Film Festival will take place across these venues: TIFF Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema Park and the Royal Alexandra Theatre. And, new this year, the John Bassett Theatre at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will also feature screenings.

Tickets for the festival will go on sale to TIFF members on Aug. 21 and to the rest of the public Aug. 31.

Senior Writer

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