Apple Original Films’ Being Heumann closed the 40th AFI Fest on Sunday, October 25, 2026, with a 7 p.m. screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The film is directed, produced and co-written by Academy Award winner Sian Heder, director of CODA, with Rebekah Taussig as co-writer. It adapts Judith Heumann’s memoir Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, telling the story of the 504 protest and the 1977 occupation of a federal building, described as the longest occupation of a federal building in US history.
Ruth Madeley stars as Judy Heumann, with Mark Ruffalo as Joseph A. Califano Jr., the US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare who was reluctant to sign the Section 504 regulations. The cast also includes Dylan O’Brien, Madeline Delp, Rob Delaney, Ray Fisher, Daniel Durant and Russell Harvard.
AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said: “At a time in history when audiences are in search of humanity — along comes BEING HEUMANN.” Heder said the film gave her “the opportunity to tell the wild story of the 504 protest and its leader Judy Heumann, a woman whose work changed the lives of millions.” The film, which had its world premiere at Toronto on September 10, opens in select theatres on November 6 and arrives on Apple TV on November 13.
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