We're now into the season that really should be known as Listmas, where everyone is compiling lists of their top 10s of 2011. But there is plenty of fine, less showy work being done, even behind the scenes, that often doesn't get the credit it deserves. So here's a shout out and a thank you to those in the DVD/Blu-ray medium who have made staying in as much fun as going out.
Best restoration
The Great White Silence
Originally released in 1924, Herbert G Ponting's documentary charted Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the south pole. Ponting only accompanied the team as far as the Antarctic coastline base camp, but this was enough to capture sights never before filmed, as well as a solid historical document of a legendary feat. The rest of the expedition is portrayed using his eerie and poignant footage of Scott, Oates, et al, training in the fiercely cold environment, breaking in their equipment before setting off, never to return. It's an important film, and the sharp BFI restoration does it the justice it deserves.
Best label
Arrow
It's often the smaller-funded labels that do the best work. Arrow has released marvellous discs of many of cinema's classics, such as Bicycle Thieves, Rififi and Les Diaboliques, but it's for their horror releases that they truly excel. The more respectable directors like George A Romero and Dario Argento get their due here, but Arrow also pull out all the stops for such (unfairly) lesser regarded Gore-teurs as Lucio Fulci and Frank Henenlotter. Blu-rays of Fulci classics The Beyond and City Of The Living Dead show that the films are far more atmospheric and better made than they ever appeared before, and for Henenlotter (with the imminent Frankenhooker disc) you get extensive extras that cover the rarely examined scene of low-budget New York film-makers and the lost grindhouses of Times Square and 42nd Street.
Best reissue
Silent Running (Masters Of Cinema)
This has come out before, in 2008 with no promotion on a fairly bare-bones DVD (cruelly echoing the way the film was released, with zero advertising, back in 1971). But 2011 saw this charming, thoughtful lost classic of science-fiction return with a vengeance on a great-looking Blu-ray, with new interviews, plus a booklet full of rare artwork and photos supplied by the film's director Douglas Trumbull. It wasn't so much reviewed as subjected to a media-wide outpouring of love by critics and fans, all of whom had fond memories of seeing it as well as being happy to report how well it's held up over time.
Best extras
The Twilight Zone
Most extras can be boiled down to two sentences: 1) "Everyone had a great time making this film" and 2) "It was mostly done with computers". Odd, then, that it takes the release of a 1959 television series to show how to package good supplementary material. With the fifth and final season hitting the shelves soon, The Twilight Zone discs are stuffed with interviews, commentaries, isolated music tracks, relevant episodes of other TV shows, radio plays and university lectures from the show's brilliant creator Rod Serling. It presents a masterclass in creating timeless, thought-provoking TV.
Best disc to convince your mum about Blu-ray
Frozen Planet
Even if you watched this on the BBC's HD channel, it's not as good as seeing it on Blu-ray. It's impossibly clear, with both the picture and sound as crisp as the driven snow (particularly good since most of the images are of driven snow). The BBC's trip to the icy wastelands seemed at first like they were scraping the bottom of the nature barrel for their docs, but it turned out to be their most spectacular offering yet. Much better than a Pixar movie to convince your elders and betters that Blu-ray is worthwhile.