Warner Bros. Pictures has confirmed what many of us already know -- that Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best movies of the year.

According to Slashfilm, Warner Bros, has decided to campaign for Mad Max: Fury Road as a Best Picture nominee for this year's Academy Awards. That doesn't mean the movie will get nominated or even considered by the voting members of the Academy, but Warner Bros. is going to spend money, resources and time to try and make that happen.

The news was broken by film critic Mike McGranahan, who posted a photo of the first campaign ad on Twitter, which also finds the studio pushing Tom Hardy for Best Actor, Charlize Theron for Best Actress and Nicholas Hoult for Best Supporting Actor (they'll also more than likely put George Miller up for Best Director, and deservedly so).

It's official: WB is pushing MAD MAX: FURY ROAD for a Best Picture nomination. pic.twitter.com/EFTBHIckUJ — Mike McGranaghan (@AisleSeat) October 12, 2015

Academy Award campaigns are an industry unto themselves, with studios often going all-out to secure votes for socially conscious dramas or biopics that are often referred to as "prestige pictures" or, more disparagingly, as "Oscar bait." Once in a while you have a movie like Avatar or Gravity or District 9 get a Best Picture nomination, but the sad truth is that the Academy, for the most part, tends to ignore sci-fi. The 2004 sweep by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which included Best Picture, was a true anomaly (and the movie is not even sci-fi, it's fantasy).

Mad Max: Fury Road, however, has dazzled just about everyone who has seen it. It's got a 97 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (making it one of the best-reviewed films of the year), and beyond its sci-fi trappings it's widely regarded as both an action tour de force and an electrifying piece of pure cinema.

There is no doubt it can win a lot of technical awards for visual effects, editing, production design and so on (where it will still face stiff competition from the likes of The Martian and others), but the studio clearly sees that Mad Max: Fury Road transcends itself and its genre. That should be the angle the studio takes, along with the film being the crowning achievement of George Miller's career.

Is Mad Max: Fury Road a Best Picture nominee in your eyes?