With her film 'The Butler' crossing the $100 million mark, Oprah Winfrey is lobbying hard to clinch an Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress. However, many industry pundits feel that more than Winfrey Lupita Nyong'o's performance in 'Tweleve Years A Slave' is worthy of winning an Oscar.

Lupita is a Kenyan actress and is not a known face as Oprah, still her emotionally charged and poignant performance as Patsey, a plantation slave who caters to the fondness and idiosyncrasies of a brutal estate owner, has placed her at the frontline of Oscar nominations

About her role as Patsey, she told Entertainment Weekly, "It was hard to go there, but it was necessary,"

As far as Oprah Winfrey performance in "The Butler" is concerned she has given equally impressive performance .Winfrey plays Gloria Gaines, wife of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a White House butler and is beguiling in every scene.

According to Leonard Maltin, Oprah is an overpowering presence in our culture. You can't pretend otherwise. But that's what makes her work in 'The Butler' impressive. She succeeds in making you forget that she's Oprah Winfrey so you can accept and embrace the character she's playing.

However Lupita's role as a tea plantation slave has been declared by critics as more challenging. A particular critic wrote, "Nyong'o doesn't have the same name recognition as Oprah, but if you were to compare the two performances it's quite obvious, to me at least, who gives the better performance".

Other than Oprah and Lupita, it is Julia Roberts who would be running in the race of 'Oscar 2014 Best Supporting Actress' for her role in August: Osage County.