Dark Knight Rises launches Oscar campaign

Oscar-winning superhero films are roughly as rare as rocking horse dung.

Aside from Heath Ledger's posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2009 for 'The Dark Knight', it's a genre that is roundly ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

But the makers of 'The Dark Knight Rises' appear to be confronting this fact head on.

[Related story: Dark Knight Rises stars talk Oscar chances]

This week's issue of Hollywood industry magazine Variety boasts a full-page 'for your consideration' advert for the final film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

The ads, which aim to attract the attention of Oscar voters, are usually emblazoned with persuasive and gushing quotes from the press about the particular film being offered up.

And the ad for 'The Dark Knight Rises' conforms to type, with quotes from Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times laid over an arty shot from the film.

Earlier this year, cast-members spoke to Yahoo! UK about the prospects of the film in awards season.

Morgan Freeman was emphatic when asked if it should win an Oscar, saying: "It should yes, don't you think so? It's the most extraordinary of three extraordinary pictures, and yes I think it should get a nomination."

Nolan was more guarded, saying: "Our focus and the thing we worry about with this film is trying to fulfil expectations. That's pressure enough."

But it appears that Warner Bros. now has a different focus, with its 'for your consideration' ad gunning for as many nominations as it can get.

Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' was the most-nominated superhero film of all time, getting eight nods in all, but if 'The Dark Knight Rises' hopes to win in 2013, it will have its work cut out.

Favourites for Best Picture are likely to include 'The Master', 'Lincoln', 'Argo', 'Les Miserables', 'Life of Pi' and 'Beasts of the Southern Wild', with their respective directors also in the running for the helmsman gong too.

It's tough — possibly insurmountable — competition, but if there's a superhero film that could pull it off this year, 'The Dark Knight Rises' is probably it.