The jewel in the industry's crown is Tsotsi, Gavin Hood's gritty drama about a young gangster in Soweto, near Johannesburg, which won an Academy Award for best foreign language film in 2006.
In 2010, District 9 – an action-packed science-fiction movie about a sub-class of aliens forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg – was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture.
South Africa also has a growing reputation as a producer for award-winning local content, such as Oscar-nominated Yesterday, the story of the struggles of an HIV-positive mother; and U Carmen E Khayalitsha, a Xhosa- language film which won the Golden Bear award at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival.
