108 minutes – Thriller
Language: English, Oji-Cree
Festival release date: September 2024 – TIFF
Release date: March 2025
Production company: Hungry Eyes Film & Television
Canadian distributor: Mongrel Media

40 Acres is a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman, a matriarch of descendants of African American farmers who settled in 1875 in rural Canada after the Civil War. Two hundred years later, they are trying to survive in a famine-decimated near future, struggling to safeguard their farm against a band of cannibals intent on taking their home.

Written by R.T. Thorne, who makes his feature directorial debut with this film, the idea for it first surfaced in 2018. It was shot in Sudbury, Ontario in September and October of 2023 with support from Telefilm Canada, OntarioCreates. Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and Mongrel Media. Above photo by: Rafy, courtesy of Mongrel Media.