Irish Oscar hopeful Ruth Negga has received some high praise from Oscar winner Natalie Portman for her performance in Loving

Negga has been generating a lot of awards buzz for her performance in Jeff Nichols' biopic about Mildred and Richard Loving and their landmark Supreme Court civil rights case which ruled that the laws against interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

Should Negga be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, her likely biggest competition would come in the form of Natalie Portman who has been winning rave reviews for her performance in Jackie, a biopic of America's most iconic First Lady. 

Portman has had her say on Negga's awards chances and described the Limerick native as a 'powerful talent'. 

“People are definitely talking about Ruth and the extraordinary emotion she conveys and that to me, indicates a rare, powerful talent." she told The Irish Sun

Portman also talked about how the awards attention will hopefully get Negga and Loving the recognition they deserve. 

“It’s not the final word but awards can be vital in broadening the audience for a movie, especially smaller independent projects so you hope it gets that recognition."

“And I’m sure the movie and Ruth’s performance will.”