Critics’ darling Away from Her has extended its box-office success into home video as pre-orders for the DVD reached an impressive 100,000 units by the Sept. 11 release date.

That makes Sarah Polley’s feature directorial debut the most successful English-Canadian film on DVD for distributor Mongrel Media. It doubles the pre-orders for Mongrel’s second-best seller, Deepa Mehta’s Water.

The film, about the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on a long-married couple, played by Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie, made more than $1.4 million at the domestic box office, figuring into a total of US$4.6 in North America. It’s the highest-grossing English-Canadian film of the year, though it will likely be dethroned in the coming weeks by David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises.

Andrew Frank, Mongrel’s manager of sales and business development, tells Playback Daily the pre-order sales for the drama came up higher than expected.

‘The title is continuing to do well. We’re still seeing lots of bump orders, where existing customers increase the size of their order above what they already had,’ he says, adding that with 100,000 units, Away from Her can be found ‘pretty much anywhere’ in Canada.

The large marketing initiative for the DVD release is comprised of a television, radio and poster campaign, as well as an online national contest offering a weekend for two at any Canadian Fairmont hotel or resort.

Mongrel expects that Christie, best known for roles in Dr. Zhivago and her Academy Award-winning turn in Darling, will earn a fourth best-actress nomination come Oscar season.

‘That will certainly give us a very healthy [order] bump in the winter of 2008,’ Frank says. Away from Her is handled in the U.S. by the home entertainment division of Lionsgate.

The DVD is available in a single or a two-disc special edition. Extras on the two-disc set include Polley’s short film I Shout Love, a making-of Away from Her featurette, deleted scenes, and commentary by Polley.