Saving the best for last, three recent DVD releases are among the year’s finest films.

With the same basic plot as Avatar, South African director Neill Blomkamp’s first film, District 9, is a thrilling science fiction film given gravitas by both its documentary style flavor and its Johannesburg setting. Sharlto Copley heads the brilliant, if heretofore unknown, cast of actors as a government minister who is slowly turning into an insect-like alien. See Avatar and sit in awe of its special effects then see this masterpiece and be in even more awe of what can be accomplished on a shoestring with wit, style and a great deal of heart.

District 9 is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Writer-director Cary Fukinaga explores familiar landscapes with a fresh eye in Sin Nombre, the best foreign language film I’ve seen this year. The film is about two disparate would-be illegal emigrants to America. One is a young girl whose father has returned to Honduras to bring his teenage daughter to America to live with his new family; the other is a teenage Mexican gang member in search of a better life. The two meet under extraordinary circumstances and band together on a harrowing journey. Set in a world where betrayal and death wait around every corner, the film is filled with unbearable sorrow yet ends on a note of hope, a kind of updated version of The Grapes of Wrath for our time.

Sin Nombre is available on standard DVD only.

A charmer that sneaks up on you, Ann Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Sugar is about a Dominican star baseball player recruited for the U.S. minor leagues. A stranger in a strange land, he must depend on the kindness of strangers to help find his niche, which he eventually does. This is a great sports movie in the best sense of the word. Algenis Perez Soto is a real find as Miguel “Sugar” Santos.

Sugar is available on standard DVD only.

Also new, the long-awaited DVD release of Gavin Millar’s 1985 gem, Dreamchild starring the splendid Coral Browne as the old lady who as child was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, and Ian Holm as Lewis Carroll (in flashbacks). Jim Henson designed the creatures who still haunt the elderly Alice.

Dreamchild is available exclusively from Amazon.com.

As promised, here are my lists of the Best DVD releases of 2009:

Best Blu-ray releases (classics):

• Gone With the Wind – 70th Anniversary Edition (reviewed November 24th)
• The Wizard of Oz – 70th Anniversary Edition (reviewed October 6th)
• North by Northwest – 50th Anniversary Edition (reviewed November 3rd)
• South Pacific 50th Anniversary Edition (reviewed March 31st)
• Woodstock – 40th Anniversary Edition (reviewed June 9th)
• Pinocchio (reviewed March 10th)
• The Seventh Seal (reviewed June 16th)
• Quo Vadis (reviewed March 31st)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (reviewed November 3rd)
• A Christmas Carol (reviewed November 3rd)

Best Blu-ray releases (contemporary films):

• District 9 (reviewed December 29th)
• Inglourious Basterds (reviewed December 15th)
• Up (reviewed November 17th)
• Coraline (reviewed July 28th)
• (500) Days of Summer (reviewed December 22nd)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (reviewed May 5th)
• Slumdog Millionaire (reviewed March 31st)
• Milk (reviewed March 10th)
• The Reader (reviewed May 5th)
• Doubt (reviewed April 7th)

Best standard DVD releases (classic films):

• Icons of Screwball Comedy, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2(reviewed August 4th)
• The Claudette Colbert Collection (reviewed November 3rd)
• The Golden Age of Television (reviewed December 1st)
• Chinatown(reviewed October 20th)
• Dreamchild (reviewed December 29th)

Not much in the latter category this year as DVD distributors have cut way back on releases. Criterion, Fox and Warner Bros. continue to upgrade their most popular titles to Blu-ray while Paramount continues to rerelease their most popular titles in the most pristine standard DVD editions available.

Two trends this year make us hopeful for the future of the home video format.

The first is the increase of availability of films on Blu-ray and the price wars that make these higher end discs affordable, often at a cost below standard DVD versions of the same films.

The second is the trend begun by Warner Bros. to release classic films upon demand as the masters become available. By year end both Universal and MGM-UA had dipped their toes into the market as well.