Nigerian filmmaker Kaelo Iyizoba’s The Spectacular Death of Prisca received an Honourable Mention in the Best International Short Film category at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, which announced its 2026 award winners on 20 September 2026.
The film was the only African title named among TIFF’s 2026 award recipients and runners-up in the festival’s official announcement.
The Short Cuts jury praised the film’s mix of melodrama, action and comedy, as well as the precision of its filmmaking and performances. In its citation, the jury described the work as “a delightful mashup of melodrama, action and comedy” that creates “its own singular tone, full of personality and completely free of pretension.”
TIFF’s official synopsis reads: “On her daughter’s wedding day, a mother finds herself catapulted into a fever-dream quest to rescue her daughter in Kaelo Iyizoba’s wonderfully imaginative narrative and uproarious love letter to 1980s Nollywood, packed with bold aesthetics, chaotic twists, and delightfully over-the-top melodrama.”
The Best International Short Film prize went to Elia Kalogianni’s MAMMALIA, a Greece–Netherlands production. TIFF’s 2026 edition presented 294 films from 72 countries over 11 days in Toronto, Canada, and concluded on 20 September.
Source: TIFF, “TIFF announces 2026 award winners”. The film was previously announced in TIFF’s 2026 Short Cuts programme.