This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) awards, which are usually voted on the first Monday of January of the following year.

The society was co-founded in the New York City apartment of Hollis Alpert (Saturday Review) by Alpert, Pauline Kael (New Yorker), Joseph Morgenstern (Newsweek) and Richard Schickel (Time), who were refused membership in the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC). Its purpose was to counteract the influence of Bosley Crowther, the New York Times critic who dominated the NYFCC for many years. Although the NSFC is considered a highbrow organization, it has actually awarded its Best Picture prize to the eventual Oscar winner five times in the first fifty years to 1977’s Annie Hall, 1992’s Unforgiven, 1993’s Schindler’s List, 2004’s Million Dollar Baby and 2009’s The Hurt Locker. I agree with four of those choices, agreeing instead with the NYFCC’s 1992 pick of The Player over Unforgiven. NYFCC had also agreed with the 1977, 1993 and 2009 choices.

In addition to those four selections, I think there were ten times when the NSFC’s top selection was superior to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Oscar picks. They were 1975’s Nashville, 1976’s All the President’s Men, 1979’s Breaking Away, 1988’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1997’s L.A. Confidential, 2000’s Yi Yi, 2001’s Mulholland Drive, 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth, 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2010’s The Social Network. The NYFCC agreed with the 1975, 1976, 1997, 2001 and 2006 choices as well. Happily all fourteen of the NSFC’s choices I agree with, along with Unforgiven, are available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Robert Altman’s one-of-a-kind musical drama Nashville is available from Criterion with a myriad of extras including a 2013 documentary on the making of the film with interviews from actors Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Michael Murphy, Allen Nicholls and Lily Tomlin, screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury, assistant director Alan Rudolph, and Altman’s widow Kathryn Reed Altman.

Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men is available from Warner Bros. Entertainment with extras that include a booklet with a timeline of the events covered in this fascinating historical thriller filmed shortly after the dirty deeds of the Nixon Administration were brought to light. Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards and Hal Halbrook lead the cast.

Woody Allen’s semi-autobiographical comedy Annie Hall is available in a bare bones edition from Fox Home Video with no Special Edition currently planned. However, with Allen’s Alvy Singer, Diane Keaton’s title character and Tony Roberts’ best friend still as goofily fresh as they were thirty-eight years ago, who needs a Special Edition?

Peter Yates’ Breaking Away was released in a Special Edition Blu-ray from Twilight Time earlier in the year with commentary from actor Dennis Christopher and film historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman. The classic coming-of-age comedy-drama is also available in a bare bones DVD from Fox Home Video.

Philip Kaufman’s erotic masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being starring Daniel Day-Lewis is available in a DVD-only Special Edition from Warner Bros. Entertainment. Included is a 2006 commentary from Kaufman, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, co-star Lena Olin and editor Walter Murch. Also included is a documentary on the making of the film.

Clint Eastwood’s classic western Unforgiven is available in various iterations of its Special Edition from Warner Home Entertainment including the recently released Clint Eastwood 20-Film Collection. Among the special features is a commentary by Eastwood biographer and film historian Richard Schickel.

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was released on Blu-ray in 2013 with no new features, but the package also contains DVDs of the film and extras including the documentaries Voices from the List, Behind the Shoah Foundation with Steven Spielberg and About Witness.

Curtis Henson’s modern film noir L.A. Confidential was originally released on Blu-ray in 2008 with a wealth of extras including commentary by critic/historian Andrew Sarris, producers Arnon Milchan and Michael Nathanson, novelist James Ellroy, costume designer Ruth Myers, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, production designer Jeannine Oppewall, editor Peter Honess, director of photography Dante Spinotti, and actors Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito .

Edward Yang’s Yi Yi was released on Blu-ray by Criterion in 2011 with commentary by the Taiwanese director who died in 2007, his commentary having been carried over from Criterion’s 2006 DVD-only release. The film, which has often been compared to Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece Tokyo Story, remains vital viewing.

David Lynch’s deliciously bizarre Mulholland Drive was finally released on Blu-ray this year. Included are new interviews with Lynch and star Naomi Watts, and separately with Watts and fellow actors Laura Harring, Justin Theroux and Johnna Ray.

Clint Eastwood’s modern boxing drama Million Dollar Baby starring Oscar winners Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman is, like Unforgiven, part of the Clint Eastwood 20-Film Collection as well as available on its own, complete with various extras.

Guillermo del Toro’s dramatic fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth is available from New Line with a wealth of extras including commentary from the director.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s film of Upton Sinclair’s There Will Be Blood starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano is available from Paramount. Featured are various extras including two deleted scenes.

Kathryn Bigelow’s modern war film The Hurt Locker is available from Summit Entertainment featuring various extras including interviews with Bigelow and fellow Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal.

David Fincher’s exhilarating chronicle of the heady origins of Facebook, The Social Network starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer, is available from Sony with tons of extras including the documentary, How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?.

This week’s new releases include Pawn Sacrifice and a restored Triumph of the Will.