On 6 March 2006, the South African film Tsotsi, starring young actors Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto and directed by Gavin Woods, received the Oscar for the best foreign film at the Oscar awards in Hollywood. Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto - where survival is the primary objective - Tsotsi ("thug" or "gangster") traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking.
eventREF E-0013682Revised
6 March 2006
Tsotsi wins Academy Award
- Updated
- 5 Mar 2020
How we know this
- 01South Africa The Good News, (2006), 'Amandla! Tsotsi wins an Oscar!' , 06 March, [online], Available at sagoodnews.co.za [Accessed: 25 February 2009]
Last updated · 5 Mar 2020
South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Tsotsi wins Academy Award. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013682
South African History Online (2011) 'Tsotsi wins Academy Award', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013682 (Accessed: 9 October 2026).
South African History Online, Tsotsi wins Academy Award [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013682, (accessed 9 October 2026).
"Tsotsi wins Academy Award." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013682. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
South African History Online. "Tsotsi wins Academy Award." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013682.
Also on 6 March
- 1881Armistice negotiations are concluded during the First Anglo-Boer War
- 1957Gold Coast (Ghana) gains independence
- 1957The first Non-White South African Table Tennis team participates at the World Championship
- 1974British labour conditions in South Africa condemned
- 1979The Bethal Treason Trial resumes
- 1982F.W. de Klerk is unanimously elected the new leader of the Transvaal NP
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