Stephen Quay
Directing
Born June 17, 1947 · Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
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.
Directed (47)
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025
The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz
2022
Ghosts and Whispers
2022
11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
2021
VadeMecum
2021
The Doll's Breath
2019
Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013
Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
2011
Wonderwood: Comme des garçons
2010
Maska
2010
Kinoteka Ident
2009
Inventorium of Traces
2009
Eurydice: She, So Beloved
2007
Alice in Not So Wonderland
2007
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
2007
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005
Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
2004
The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection
2003
Songs for Dead Children
2003
Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
2001
Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
2001
The Sandman
2000
In Absentia
2000
The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
2000
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995
The Summit
1995
Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
1993
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
1993
Anamorphosis
1993
Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
1992
The Comb
1991
The Calligrapher
1991
Ex Voto
1989
Rain Dance
1988
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
1988
Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
1988
Tales of the Brothers Quay
1987
Street of Crocodiles
1986
This Unnameable Little Broom
1985
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
1984
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film
1984
Janáček: Intimate Excursions
1983
Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929
1982
A Fratricide
1981
Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy
1981
The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode
1981
Nocturna Artificialia
1979
Acting (10)
The Music of Zdeněk Liška
2017
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
Quay
2015
Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers
2011
Inside The Institute
2010
The Art of Time
2009
The Bug Trainer
2009
The Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"
2006
The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection
2003
The Falls
1982