The year is 1977. Raised in Brooklyn by German Jewish immigrants, and using a wheelchair since a childhood case of polio, Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) knows it takes grit and tenacity to get things done. So when Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo) refuses to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first national civil rights legislation designed to provide protections for people with disabilities, Judy devises a plan to force his hand, beginning with the occupation of a federal building in San Francisco, before going all the way to DC — and Califano’s front door — with a diverse team of self-described “radical crips,” creating solidarity through coalitions of marginalized groups.

At the centre of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's latest film, his first shot largely in French, is an extended exchange between Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira, TIFF '25's A Private Life), the newly appointed director of a Parisian elderly-care facility, and Mari (Tao Okamoto), a Japanese theatre director living with terminal cancer. Their conversation moves across languages and ideas — from capitalism, demographic decline, and social exhaustion, to illness, caregiving, and art itself — yet Hamaguchi uses dialogue less as exposition than as an ethical practice: a way of listening, testing thought, and reaching toward another person.

A seasoned detective (Ethan Juan) recently diagnosed with dementia is doggedly pursued by both cops and crooks after he unwittingly wanders off with a multimillion-dollar ransom in a new absurdist crime caper from cult auteur SABU.

A deliberate return to the poignant genre farces that defined writer-director SABU’s early career, Arrested Memory is a delightful confluence of his signature scenarios. Multi-pronged chases, mistaken/disordered identities, ruminations of guilt, dance numbers, the irreverent interventions of both incompetent police and hapless Yakuza — they’re all here. As is Shin’ichi Tsutsumi, who led SABU’s first five films from Dagan Runner to Drive, and is now among the many intimidating foils barking “baka” (idiot) at the filmmaker’s patented put-upon protagonist.

For young Christophe, life on a rural French farm comes with a lot of hard work, not a lot of passion, and precarious health. Dizzy spells sabotage his day-to-day activities. In need of balance, he gets fitted with an iron back brace which helps with his posture but draws derision from outsiders. Coming of age is not an easy road for anyone, let alone someone feeling a literal and figurative weight on his back. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes last spring, Pixar animator Louis Clichy’s gorgeous hand-painted animation tells the story of a boy in need of a back brace who seeks the courage to stand alone.

This galvanizing portrait celebrates Rick Hansen, the great Canadian athlete and activist. It chronicles his 26-month Man In Motion World Tour: a 40,000-kilometre wheelchair journey that raised millions to eliminate accessibility barriers and transform public perception of people with disabilities. Produced by homegrown star Ryan Reynolds (TIFF ’25’s John Candy: I Like Me) and helmed by documentarian Adrian Buitenhuis (I Am Burt Reynolds, Anne Murray: Full Circle), Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story is a vital celebration of the magic that arises when athleticism meets activism.

Lucia (Justin Vivian Bond) has spent her life fighting for gay and trans rights, often to the detriment of her own personal relationships. As she gets older, all she wants is to find a facility that can help her with her worsening Alzheimer’s and that shares her fundamental values. But when she enters the nursing home — one that claimed to be trans-friendly — she quickly notices that the treatment she’s receiving, particularly from one very involved nurse, is a far cry from the supportive safety that was promised.

With heartache, laughter, and hard-won connection, the latest from Oscar-nominated director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, TIFF ’05’s Proof) stars Oscar nominee Laura Linney (TIFF ’08’s The Savages) and Rhys Ifans (TIFF ’23’s Mother Couch) as strangers whose lives become gradually entwined when both are diagnosed with Parkinson disease at the same clinic, on the same day.

This intimate and inspiring portrait from filmmaker Sean Menard (TIFF ’17’s The Carter Effect) draws upon never-before-seen footage to reveal the arduous process and profound commitment behind Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Illness robbed Fox of many aspects of his youth but, in return, it gave him preternatural wisdom — and a vision of what it takes to enact real change.

Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me comes to life in hand-drawn 2D animation, in director Leah Nelson’s deeply moving feature debut. Set in San Francisco in the ’90s, Tangles follows the story of Sarah, a young woman whose life is just beginning to tip into the stuff her dreams are made of — new opportunities to illustrate, a new romance with a bad-ass motorcycle-riding girlfriend named Donimo — when the pull of responsibility calls for her.