Muriel Box is to be celebrated by the BFI and archive owner STUDIOCANAL in May.

Britain's most prolific female film director, an Oscar winner, novelist and prolific screenwriter, Box died in 1991 at the age of 85 and is often overlooked. At the height of her career in the 1950s and 60s, she was regularly treated more with curiosity - and disdain from other powerful women - than as a talented film-maker in her own right.

The BFI's season runs from 2nd to 23rd May, including talks and many screenings of her films.

STUDIOCANAL, the archive owner of most of her work, has restored all of the titles to 4K UHD standard, and will release three of them - all comedies - on 29th May on DVD, and for the first time, on HD Blu-ray and in digital download formats.

The films enjoying their Blu-ray debuts are The Passionate Stranger and The Truth About Women (both released in 1957), plus her final feature, Rattle Of A Simple Man (1964), starring Harry H. Corbett.

Season curator for the BFI, Josephine Botting explains: "Women in post-war Britain were determined not to lose the freedoms gained during the conflict. A key screenwriter of the period, Box used her scripts to explore the domestic sphere, underscoring her belief that women could be strong and independent while retaining their femininity. Deftly couching her message in popular entertainment, she subtly shifted the way British cinema portrayed women, giving audiences much food for thought.

"Always pushing boundaries in her determination to bring controversial subjects to the screen, Box came into conflict with male-run authorities like the Home Office and the censors. Yet, despite her trailblazing career in British film, 60 years after she directed her last film, Box's 13-feature record has yet to be beaten. This selection of her writing and directing shows off her unique talent."

Born in 1905 in Surrey, Murial Box - née Baker - started reading scripts for British Instructional Pictures at Welwyn Garden City before moving to the Continuity department at the company's Elstree site. She met and married journalist Sydney Box and introducing him to the film industry, they formed a documentary production company, Verity Films, that produced propaganda films during the Second World War. In 1945 Muriel and Sydney wrote The Seventh Veil, which appears at no 10 in the BFI's list of the biggest UK cinema hits of all time based on audience figures (more people saw it at the cinema than did Harry Potter). The film won them the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay - Muriel becoming the first ever woman to pick up the prize.

Eventually they both ended up at Gainsborough Studios, with Muriel heading up the script department, and then Rank. In 1950 she finally directed her first feature, The Happy Family (1952), although at the time they had to pretend that Sydney was co-directing to keep the distributors happy. After her directing career ended in 1964, she left the industry to co-found Britain's first feminist publishing house, Femina, and later became a campaigner for women's rights, working with her friend, Labour politician Edith Summerskill, to reform Britain's divorce laws.

Through Sydney, Muriel was the sister-in-law of Betty E. Box, a hugely prolific film producer in her own right, and Betty's husband, Carry On producer Peter Rogers.

The three new Blu-rays each come with a selection of extra features, including behind the scenes photo galleries and a serialised, three-part new documentary about Box's life and career.