André Téchiné

André Téchiné (born 13 March 1943) is a significant figure in French cinema, renowned as a screenwriter and director. He stands alongside the most accomplished post-New Wave French film directors, having fostered a distinguished career in the field. Téchiné belongs to a second generation of French film critics associated with Cahiers du cinéma, which served as the trajectory for François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and others from criticism into filmmaking.

He is noted for making elegant and emotionally charged films that delve deeply into complex emotions and the human condition. His unique style encompasses the exploration of human relations in both a sensitive and non-sentimental manner as depicted in his acclaimed films: My Favorite Season (1993) and Wild Reeds (1994). His films tend to address various themes about morality and the evolution of modern society, such as homosexuality, divorce, adultery, family breakdown, prostitution, crime, drug addiction, and AIDS.

Téchiné was born and raised in a small agricultural town of Valence-d'Agen in the Midi-Pyrénées region, France to a Spanish ancestry family. From a young age, he developed a passion for film and was exposed to varied cultures and film literature in school. At nineteen, he moved to Paris to pursue a career in filmmaking failing to get into France's most recognized film school IDHEC, instead writing reviews for Cahiers du cinéma for four years (1964–1967). He made his directing debut in Paulina s'en va (Paulina is Leaving) (1969). Over the years, he has received numerous awards and nominations. His film Wild Reeds won Best Foreign Language Film in 1994 from both the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics US.