The critics have spoken and the massive, $300 box set Ford at Fox was named the best DVD of 2007 by the contributors at DVDBeaver.com. For the fourth annual poll, Thirty-six DVD critics from all over the world submitted their individual top ten lists -- each of which is featured -- and then editor Gary Tooze tallied up points for the final results. The coveted John Ford box contains 24 John Ford films on 21 discs; kudos to any critic who had time to watch it all.

In second and third place are The Films of Kenneth Anger Vol. 2 and Vol. 1, both distributed by Fantoma Films. Volume 2 earned a few more points, probably due to the inclusion of Anger's most famous work, Scorpio Rising. In fourth place is another huge box set, the Criterion Collection's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), assembling Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-hour film on 7 discs. Showing off DVDBeaver's dedication to international DVDs, fifth place went to the BFI's second Region 2 box set of films by Mikio Naruse, containing When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), Floating Clouds (1955) and Late Chrysanthemums (1954). The US release of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs from the Criterion Collection was counted as a tie.

Sixth place went to my personal favorite of the year, Criterion Eclipse's five-disc box set Late Ozu, featuring five great films from the 1950s and 1960s by the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. In seventh place was Warner Home Video's Film Noir Classics Collection, Vol. 4, with ten films on five discs, including Nicholas Ray's debut They Live by Night (1949) and Andre de Toth's essential Crime Wave (1954). Milestone's amazing 2-disc Killer of Sheep DVD, featuring several more features and short films by Charles Burnett, ranked eighth. Paramount's Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition took ninth place, sneaking out a few months after people spent their hard-earned cash on the Season Two box. Criterion sealed up the list at tenth place with their two-disc Sansho the Bailiff (1954), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

Tooze also included the first 40 runners up. Top vote-getters include Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Inland Empire and Ace in the Hole. Other categories are "best commentary track," "best extras" and "best transfer." Voters included Jonathan Rosenbaum, Theo Panayides, Tom Charity and the staff of Slant Magazine.

My pick of the week is the emotionally charged yet evenhanded documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals -- look for a separate review later today -- but it's a wonderfully packed week for indie releases. Arthouse fans of all stripes should have a field day with Criterion's edition of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's magnificent Berlin Alexanderplatz, originally aired on German television and now restored and available on DVD for the first time.

If you missed La Vie en Rose in theaters, now's the time to catch up with the "superb performance given by Marion Cotillard," in the words of our own Erik Davis. Erik had some reservations about the film as a whole, as did Jeffrey M. Anderson, who called it "a spectacular one-woman show, but not really a movie." The DVD includes a "making of" feature. The anthology Paris, Je T'aime should be ideal for consumption on DVD: 18 short films in 120 minutes. Cinematical's Ryan Stewart felt that only "about 40 of its 120 minutes is worth saving," but his was a minority opinion. The DVD includes a "making of" documentary.

Speaking of minority opinions, I found Argentine youth drama Glue to be acutely irritating, but most reviewers recommended it. The DVD includes deleted scenes for those who can't get enough. On the other hand, I thought French girls' school fable Innocence was visually beautiful yet devoid of any substance. Again, others were better attuned to its wavelength. The DVD includes interviews with the director and an 'explanation' by one of the actresses.

Ensemble drama Resilience (pictured) drew mixed critical response but may be just right if you're looking for more "challenging material," in the words of Variety. Shane Meadows' This is England "derives its power from a pair of extraordinary performances," according to Martha Fischer. And Amazing Grace features a strong cast in the true story of British antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce.

German cinema is mourning the loss of two greats this week, composer Peer Raben and actress Gisela Uhlen. The news of their deaths should be especially heartbreaking to fans of Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, since it features the talents of both. Raben, who died Sunday at the age of 66, collaborated with Fassbinder on most of the director's films, including Querelle, which unfortunately earned the composer three Razzie nominations. Despite that one moment of fault, though, Raben was the recipient of a lifetime achievement honor at the 2006 World Soundtrack Awards.

In addition to scoring Fassbinder's major works, he also wrote original music for Wong Kar Wai's 2046 and The Hand (Wong Kar Wai's segment of the portmanteau Eros), Barbet Schroeder's Tricheurs and a restored version of Pandora's Box. And he occasionally wrote, directed, acted, produced. Uhlen died on January 16 at the age of 87. She had worked fairly steady as an actress for the past 70 years, though the aforementioned Fassbinder film is probably the work she's most known for in the States. It is also the film that brought her the one German Film Award she would ever receive. The only film that I have seen her in (I know, I need to see more Fassbinder) is Totò the Hero, and her death reminds me that it is disappointingly still unavailable on DVD in America.