‘CODA’ didn’t change Hollywood's attitude about disability. Siân Heder hopes ‘Being Heumann’ can

TORONTO (AP) — A line has been running through Siân Heder’s head lately: “What would Judy do?”

Heder, the director of the best picture-winning “CODA,” was taking a moment to reflect a few hours before she premiered her new film, “Being Heumann,” at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is about Judy Heumann, the disability rights pioneer, and the protest movement she shepherded that ultimately led to the landmark Americans With Disability Act.

Heumann died in 2023, but as Heder prepared to debut the film, she was very present.

“It’s really sad that she’s not here to see this,” Heder said, beginning to tear up. “I’ll cry with you so I don’t have to cry tonight. I think about her all the time. I hope she would be proud of the movie and the way that we made it.”

“Being Heumann,” which Apple will release in theaters Nov. 6 and begin streaming Nov. 13, is Heder’s attempt to not only pay tribute to the relentless, hardscrabble protest movement, but to challenge the way movies are made.

“CODA,” the first film featuring a largely deaf cast to triumph at the Oscars, already marked a watershed moment for the film industry. It derived much of its crowd-pleasing power from the charisma of Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin, both of whom are deaf. But five years later, Heder has seen any momentary embrace by Hollywood of the disabled community come and go.

In “Being Heumann,” the opening night film of TIFF, Heder again strove for authenticity in a cast peopled with disabled actors. On Thursday night, just the presence of the cast of “Being Heumann” was a statement.

“I watched this incredible adjustment happen for ‘CODA’ in Hollywood, and then the moment ‘CODA’ was done, it was like, ‘Phew, now we don’t have to have interpreters anymore,’” Heder said. “Out of necessity, my cast showing up on a red carpet is going to force people to adjust. That’s going to be messy, but interesting and important.”

“Being Heumann” stars Ruth Madeley, a BAFTA-nominated actor born with spina bifida, as Heumann. It chronicles the historic 28-day sit-in when Heumann and more than 100 disability rights activists occupied the San Francisco Federal Building to demand the government sign the long-delayed accessibility regulations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Heder’s film derives much of its vibrancy from its day-to-day detail. Such a lengthy protest would be challenging for demonstrators without disabilities; for people in wheelchairs, it was dramatically more daring. But while “Being Heumann” captures that struggle, it’s also filled with a collective protest spirit. There is sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. Heder calls it “‘Dog Day Afternoon’ with disabled people.”

Although Hollywood has made some gains in representation over the years, the industry still often overlooks people with disabilities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in four U.S. adults have some type of disability. Yet the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has found that over the last decade, the number of disabled characters in popular films has held steady at about 2.4%.

That legacy — which includes a long list of dubious depictions by able-bodied actors — was part of what led Heder to make “Being Heumann.” Following the success of “CODA,” she had a wide array of options. She met numerous times with Marvel. But after seeing “Crip Camp,” the 2020 documentary that featured Heumann, reading her autobiography and working with Heumann on the film, Heder became resolved.

“I was incredibly moved by Judy’s story and her life, and her relentless pursuit of the desire to make this group of invisible people visible,” Heder said. “I could see with this film an opportunity to carry on that legacy in casting a bunch of unknown disabled actors. In a way, we were storming the building of Hollywood.”

Little of the accessibility that Heumann and company sought in 1977 exists on film sets today. When Heder began prepping for production, she found one accessible trailer in all of North America. They instead built trailers from scratch, created a “ramp village” and empowered an accessibility team.

“We had to discover all the ways that the set could become accessible,” Heder said. “It was kind of reinventing moviemaking while we were making a movie. It definitely laid a path that other people could follow.”

The cast of “Being Heumann” includes some familiar names like Mark Ruffalo (who plays Joseph Califano, the government official reluctant to sign Section 504) and Dylan O’Brien (who plays the reporter Evan White). But much of the film’s lived-in authenticity comes from performers like Andrew Pilkington (who used his letter board to talk), Madeline Delp (paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident in childhood), “CODA” actor Daniel Durant (who is deaf) and Charlie Rush-Reese (who is blind).

“The majority of sets I’ve been on, I’ve literally been the only disabled person. This is most of the cast,” said Madeley. “You can’t do that without proper accessibility. Being on the set of ‘Being Heumann’ really healed part of my acting journey. To have that on a Hollywood movie, that was my dream to see that.”

That doesn't mean there weren’t challenges. But for Heder, authenticity and specificity are the only ways to tell a story. “I think generality is the enemy of representation,” she said.

And for her it was also creatively inspiring. For example, Heder described a moment on set when Rush-Reese and Durant were working together to transfer Rio Finnegan out of a wheelchair.

“The way the communication started to move around between the three actors was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” Heder recalled. “Rio was having to narrate to Charlie with his voice while gesturing to Daniel with his body, while also acting as a translator between the two of them. That kind of interdependence was what kept this protest alive for 26 days. And I would never have been able to write that.”

Charlie Rush Reese arrives on the red carpet to promote the film Being Heumann at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, on Thursday Sept. 10, 2026. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Ruth Madeley arrives on the red carpet to promote the film "Being Heumann" at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, on Thursday Sept. 10, 2026. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Director Sian Heder arrives on the red carpet to promote the film Being Heumann at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, on Thursday Sept. 10, 2026. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Cast and crew arrive on the red carpet to promote the film Being Heumann at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky in Ukraine arrived in Belarus on Saturday as part of a major rescue operation carried out under the most significant truce since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 4½ years ago.

Civilians from Oleshky, on the Dnipro River, began the long journey out of the war-ravaged region in bus convoys Friday. The ceasefire in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region began on 3 a.m. Tuesday and is expected to continue through Sunday evening.

The estimated 2,000 remaining residents were offered the choice of traveling to Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory, or remaining in the city with replenished food and medical supplies.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said that those who had chosen to travel from Oleshky to Ukrainian-held territory were transported to the Russian city of Anapa before boarding planes to the Belarusian city of Homel. They were accompanied by Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, it said.

The group was met in Homel by rescue workers, medical teams and Red Cross volunteers, Belarusian state media outlet Belta reported.

Ukrainian lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia said that four planes transporting evacuees bound for Ukraine had landed in Belarus and the passengers would be on Ukrainian territory “within hours.”

Russia’s ombudswoman and lead representative on the mission, Yana Lantratova, said buses also transported Oleshky residents who wanted to live in Russia.

Russia and Ukraine have not specified how many people chose to leave the city, but U.S. first lady Melania Trump, whom the White House said helped broker the localized truce, posted on social media Friday that the humanitarian convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people.

Officials from both countries worked together in the rare joint humanitarian effort, offering a brief respite in the grim war of attrition.

Aside from the first lady’s apparent role, Pope Leo XIV — the first American pontiff — also pressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders to allow aid deliveries and civilian evacuations.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday welcomed U.S. approval of Ukraine’s purchase of 500 PAC-3 Patriot interceptors but urged partners to supply the weapons from existing stocks to protect the country this winter, warning the newly authorised U.S. sale could take years to deliver.

“Right now, the Russians are attacking our energy infrastructure every single day. In just these past two weeks of October, there have already been more than 30 Russian strikes on critical parts of our power grid,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

The Trump administration said Friday that it had approved a proposed $2.1 billion sale of Patriot air defense interceptors, after Kyiv had accused the Pentagon of delaying deliveries of the vital munition needed to stop Russian ballistic missiles.

The State Department said 500 Patriot missiles would be purchased for Ukraine with donations from Canada, Germany and Norway through a U.S. program and that no American funds were involved.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this screenshot from a video provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, left, speaks with residents of Oleshky during their evacuation to a safe area amid a local ceasefire connected to a humanitarian aid mission in Oleshky, Kherson region, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP)

In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center right, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine's Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP) CORRECTION: change position of Dmytro Lubinets from center left to center right