With record-breaking heat waves, torrential downpours, and poor air quality keeping many people indoors this summer, a trip to the local movie theater (or a comfy sofa in your air-conditioned living room) offers the perfect escape. Here’s a guide to some summer releases and film festival picks that feature disabled characters, production crews and disability-related themes.
GOAT
Sony Pictures Animation’s 2026 film GOAT (short for “Greatest of All Time”) centers on a team of animal athletes competing in “roarball,” a sport similar to basketball. The story is somewhat unique because it features a co-ed sports team and a mentor-mentee relationship between an aging roarball champion who’s a female black panther and an aspiring young player who’s a young male goat. But its most historic achievement occurs behind the scenes where for the first time in feature film history, the background crowd audio was entirely provided by the Disability Loop Group, an ensemble of disabled voice actors. Since many of GOAT’s scenes take place at the team’s games, there is a great need for background voices. As Nik Novicki, the group’s founder explained to CinemaBlend, “We’re doing improv, different accents, different elements—it’s almost like an orchestra… We’re coming in with different voices and sounds, sometimes collectively, sometimes singularly, to create the atmosphere of the whole movie.”
The Disability Loop Group have been waiting years for the opportunity to “loop” for a major motion picture. Their time has finally come! Originally released back in February, you can stream it on Netflix.
Being Heumann
We’ve written previously about disability rights activist, educator and author Judy Heumann, who died in 2023. In September, a new docudrama about Heumann will premiere at opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. Based on the 2020 autobiography by the same name, the film was adapted, directed and produced by Siân Heder who wrote and directed “CODA,” a 2021 film with a mostly deaf cast that won the Academy Award for best picture that year. The new film stars Ruth Madeley, an actor with spina bifida as Heumann, as well as Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O’Brien, Rob Delaney, Daniel Durant, Madeline Delp and Ray Fisher. After its premiere, “Being Heumann” will stream on Apple TV+ starting Nov. 6.
Color Book
This film tells the story of a newly widowed father who wants to take his son, who has Down syndrome, to a baseball game. First released in 2024, the highly acclaimed film—which was written and directed by David Fortune and stars Jeremiah Daniels as the son, and William Catlett as his grieving father—made film festival rounds before it began streaming on Netflix last month. Not only has “Color Book” won over 60 awards, but according to the Denver Gazette, “Jeremiah made history by becoming the first actor with Down syndrome to be nominated for an NAACP Image Award.” You won’t want to miss this one. The film is available in select theaters and on Netflix.
Westhampton
Written and directed by Christian Nillson, “Westhampton” tells the story of a young filmmaker who returns to his hometown in the aftermath of an accident he caused that left one of his friends disabled. The film stars Finn Witrock, disabled actor and activist RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad), veteran actor Tovah Feldshuh and actor Roxanne Schiebergen, a wheelchair user. You can see “Westhampton” on HBO Max.
