Presley Chweneyagae (left) and Gavin Hood attended the 2006 Oscars ceremony

Director Gavin Hood, actor Presley Chweneyagae and other cast and crew then paraded through the Alexandra township on an open-top bus.

"Thank you so much for the massive support," said Hood.

Tsotsi, about a young South African gangster, won the Oscar for best foreign language film.

"The world is very excited by South Africa, and by Tsotsi," said Hood at a press conference.

Acclaim

The film follows the story of Tsotsi, played by Chweneyagae, who shoots a driver and steals their car, only to discover there is a baby in the back seat.

Tsotsi is filmed in township slang, a mixture of South Africa's 11 official languages.

It first started to get noticed abroad when it won the audience award at last year's Edinburgh Festival. It was later picked up by international distributor Miramax.

The producer of the movie was British film-maker Peter Fudakowski.

In 2003, Fudakowski commissioned Gavin Hood to adapt Athol Fugard's novel, Tsotsi, as a feature film.

Together with his wife Henrietta who worked closely with Hood as script editor, they produced Tsotsi in South Africa with funding from the UK Film & TV Production Company and several South African companies.