
Person
Stephen Quay
Directing · Born 1947-06-17 · Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
Biography
Stephen Quay was born in 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art and later continued his education at the Royal College of Art in London, where he met his twin brother Timothy and began collaborating in animation. Together, they founded Atelier Koninck and produced their first experimental short films in the late 1970s. Throughout his career, Stephen has directed and co-directed short films, feature films, and stop-motion projects, including Nocturna Artificialia (1979), Street of Crocodiles (1986), Institute Benjamenta (1995), and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005). His work is characterized by dreamlike, detailed, and symbolic worlds, often using dolls and carefully crafted objects to create surreal and unsettling atmospheres.
Known for

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Director
Inventorium of Traces
Director

Quay
Self

The Doll's Breath
Director

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Director

The Falls
Ipson Fallari

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
Director

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
Director

The Sandman
Director
Filmography
- 2025Sanatorium Under the Sign of the HourglassDirector
- 2022The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno SchulzDirector
- 2022Ghosts and WhispersDirector
- 202111 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet LemDirector
- 2021VadeMecumDirector
- 2019The Doll's BreathDirector
- 2017The Music of Zdeněk LiškaSelf
- 2015The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
- 2015QuaySelf
- 2013Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.Animation
- 2011Behind the Scenes with the Quay BrothersSelf
- 2011Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)Director
- 2010Wonderwood: Comme des garçonsDirector
- 2010MaskaDirector
- 2010Inside The Institute
- 2009The Art of Time
- 2009Kinoteka IdentDirector
- 2009The Bug TrainerSelf - stop-motion animator
- 2009Inventorium of TracesDirector
- 2007Eurydice: She, So BelovedEditor
- 2007Alice in Not So WonderlandDirector
- 2007Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay BrothersDirector
- 2006The Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"
- 2005The Piano Tuner of EarthquakesDirector
- 2004Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003Director
- 2003The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical CollectionLibrarian
- 2003Songs for Dead ChildrenDirector
- 2001Sonic Cinema: SparklehorseDirector
- 2001Stille Nacht V: Dog DoorDirector
- 2000The SandmanDirector
- 2000In AbsentiaDirector
- 2000The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993Director
- 1995Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human LifeDirector
- 1995The SummitDirector
- 1993Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without YouDirector
- 1993Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna WoodsDirector
- 1993AnamorphosisDirector
- 1992Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?Director
- 1991The CombDirector
- 1991The CalligrapherDirector
- 1989Ex VotoDirector
- 1988Rain DanceDirector
- 1988Rehearsals for Extinct AnatomiesDirector
- 1988Stille Nacht I: DramoletDirector
- 1987Tales of the Brothers QuayDirector
- 1986Street of CrocodilesDirector
- 1985This Unnameable Little BroomDirector
- 1984The Cabinet of Jan ŠvankmajerDirector
- 1984The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of FilmDirector
- 1983Janáček: Intimate ExcursionsDirector
- 1982The FallsIpson Fallari
- 1982Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929Director
- 1981A FratricideDirector
- 1981Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical TragedyDirector
- 1981The Eternal Day of Michel de GhelderodeDirector
- 1979Nocturna ArtificialiaDirector
- —Kieślowski by QuaysDirector
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