Kaelo Iyizoba has made history as the first Nigerian to receive an Honourable Mention for Best International Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). His film, The Spectacular Death of Prisca, a fever-dream homage to old Nollywood starring Rita Dominic, earned the honour at TIFF 2026. The film was also the only African production in the festival's entire lineup this year.
A Historic First for Nigerian Cinema
No Nigerian short film had ever received an Honourable Mention for Best International Short Film at TIFF until this year. The recognition marks a significant milestone for Nigerian filmmakers on the global stage. Iyizoba, who previously attended TIFF's Directors' Lab in 2025, described the experience as "sort of like school." Now, he returns with a film in competition, representing the continent as the only African filmmaker in the lineup.
The film follows Madame P, played by Dominic, who on the day of her daughter's wedding is pulled into the exaggerated, theatrical world of an old Nollywood movie. She is forced to confront her identity as the labels she has built her life around begin to fall away. By design, the short serves as a proof of concept for a larger feature film Iyizoba has been developing for years.
From Pharmacy to Filmmaking
Iyizoba's path to filmmaking was unconventional. Growing up in Nigeria, he was creative as a child—writing, drawing, and staging plays with cousins—but he was convinced that was "a child's folly," not a career. He followed his father's wish to become a doctor and his sister's path into pharmacy school, knowing from the first day it was the wrong fit. He finished pharmacy school anyway but quit after a punishing job left him realizing he hadn't seen a sunset in months.
"I could not continue to pretend that this was the life I was meant to live," he said. A cousin's nudge toward Columbia's film program led to his acceptance. Nollywood was the backdrop of his childhood; raised in Nigeria until his early teens, he grew up on DVDs that were "secretly loved and publicly dismissed." His family wore out their copy of Uncle Wayward, he said, "till the CD started to crack." That contradiction—films dismissed as low-budget but beating Hollywood for a household's attention—shaped everything The Spectacular Death of Prisca became.
Directing a Nollywood Icon
Rita Dominic's presence is central to the film. "Rita's presence is the film; 'shapes the film' doesn't quite cover it," Iyizoba said. "She is the titular character, Madame P, and I knew this film needed to be carried by somebody who carried everything we loved about old Nollywood, iconic in that era, but also very present in Nollywood today." He rewatched The Meeting by Auntie Mildred Okwo before making the film and knew Dominic was the person for it.
"The way she let go of herself to become that character was masterful. I don't think I've seen that done in Nigeria, honestly," he added. "My job as a director is to create the environment where we can catch these performances. I don't create them; I merely try to catch them."
The wedding setting was chosen deliberately. "A wedding is a crucible," Iyizoba explained. "The tensions are high, the stakes are high, and it's supposed to be this big day where your daughter is being sent off. For our protagonist Prisca, it marks a turn where she feels like she's no longer a mother; her daughter is leaving home, and the labels she's clung to are leaving one by one." He added that Nigerian women have not been fully done justice in storytelling, and he wanted to look at them beyond labels like mother, daughter, and wife.
A Proof of Concept for Bigger Ambitions
The short was designed to open doors for a feature called A Nollywood Story. "It's in the name: the proof of concept," Iyizoba said. He has been writing the feature for almost six years. "Everybody thinks the idea is lovely, but in the ecosystems where I have to pitch it, Nollywood isn't that familiar. People wonder what that world would look like, feel like."
The short was a way to show, not tell. "This film was really a proof-of-concept of what I call the Nollyverse, the Nollywood world," he said. "Different story, same world, same mechanics." He acknowledged risks: "When we got the funding, I had irrational fears like, what if the short is bad? Does that doom the feature?" But the risk has been rewarded by the film he now has.
Avoiding parody was a priority. "I was very aware of this from the start of the feature, back in 2021, that I need this to be a love letter, an homage, not a parody," he said. "Every programmer's note or review we've received describes it as a love letter, full of heart, and that was the goal."
Iyizoba described A Nollywood Story as "the tip of the iceberg." It is also a mother-daughter relationship at its heart, about grief, loss, and finding oneself again. "It's about a daughter who, on the anniversary of her mother's passing, is sucked into this Nollyverse again, and it allows her to process everything she's refused to process. There's a chance she could find her mother in this world and bring her back." When asked when audiences might see it, he replied, "As soon as somebody gives me one million dollars."
For those unfamiliar with old Nollywood, Iyizoba recommends Abuja Connection, the film referenced in Prisca. He also cited Living in Bondage, One Dollar, Ukwa, and Girls Cot as iconic works from that era. "Anyone will find a good laugh or a good cry in there," he said.
The short, in Iyizoba's words, is "this quirky, weird, unhinged story that isn't waiting for permission." TIFF platformed it, and he hopes the rest of the industry is watching too.
