Juan Manuel Torres Sáenz (April 5, 1938 - March 17, 1980) was a Mexican writer, translator, screenwriter and filmmaker. Author of the book of stories El viaje (1969) and the novel Didascalias (1970). Between 1962 and 1968 he studied at the Leon Schiller National School of Film, Television and Theater in Lodz, Poland. He returned to Mexico and directed the films La otra virginidad (The Other Virginity, 1974), La vida cambia (Life Changes, 1975), El mar (The Sea, 1976) and La mujer perfecta (The Perfect Woman, 1977). In 1975 he won the Ariel de Oro for Best Film (along with Emilio Fernández for La Choca) and the Ariel de Plata for Best Direction for La Otra Virginidad. He died in a car accident in the early hours of March 17, 1980, when the car he was driving crashed on the Tlalpan road, shortly before his 42nd birthday.