Jacques Feyder (French: [fɛ.dɛʁ]; 21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter and actor who worked principally in France, but also in the US, Britain and Germany.

Born Jacques Léon Louis Frédérix in Ixelles, Belgium, he was educated at the École régimentaire in Nivelles, and was destined for a military career.

Le Grand Jeu (1934) and Pension Mimosas (1935) were both significant creations in the style of poetic realism; La Kermesse héroïque (1935) (also known as Carnival in Flanders) was a meticulously staged period film which aroused some contemporary political resonances; it earned Feyder several international awards.

Following the Nazi occupation in 1940, which led to the banning of La Kermesse héroïque, he left France for the safety of Switzerland, and directed a last film there, Une femme disparaît (1942).

[6] In 1917, Feyder had married Parisian-born actress Françoise Rosay with whom he had three sons; she acted in many of his films and collaborated with him as writer and assistant director on Visages d'enfants.

A school (lycée) in Épinay-sur-Seine in the north of Paris was named in his honour in 1977; Épinay was the location of the Tobis film studios where Feyder made Le Grand Jeu and Pension Mimosas.

[10] Any subsequent reassessment has tended to be hampered by the limited availability of his films in English-speaking countries, with the exception of La Kermesse héroïque which some reckon to have aged less well than other examples of his work.