- Known For
- Directing
- Born
- June 17, 1947
- Place of Birth
- Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
Stephen Quay
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.
Filmography
movieSanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025 · Director, Screenplay, Animation, Editor, Sound
The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz
movieThe Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz
2022 · Director
movieGhosts and Whispers
2022 · Director, Animation
movie11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
2021 · Director
movieVadeMecum
2021 · Director
movieThe Doll's Breath
2019 · Director
The Music of Zdeněk Liška
movieThe Music of Zdeněk Liška
2017 · Self
movieThe 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
movieQuay
2015 · Self, Thanks
movieUnmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013 · Animation, Writer, Director
movieBehind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers
2011 · Self
movieThrough the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
2011 · Director, Sound, Editor, Animation
movieWonderwood: Comme des garçons
2010 · Director
movieMaska
2010 · Director, Writer
movieInside The Institute
2010
movieThe Art of Time
2009
movieKinoteka Ident
2009 · Director
movieThe Bug Trainer
2009 · Self - stop-motion animator
Inventorium of Traces
movieInventorium of Traces
2009 · Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Sound Designer
movieEurydice: She, So Beloved
2007 · Editor, Director, Set Designer
movieAlice in Not So Wonderland
2007 · Director, Writer, Cinematography
moviePhantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
2007 · Director
movieThe Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"
2006
movieThe Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005 · Director, Writer, Production Design
movieQuay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
2004 · Director
movieThe Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection
2003 · Librarian, Director
movieSongs for Dead Children
2003 · Director
movieSonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
2001 · Director
movieStille Nacht V: Dog Door
2001 · Director, Writer
movieThe Sandman
2000 · Director
movieIn Absentia
2000 · Director, Animation
movieThe Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
2000 · Director
movieInstitute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995 · Director, Writer
movieThe Summit
1995 · Director
movieStille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
1993 · Director, Camera Operator, Animation
movieStille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
1993 · Director, Animation, Camera Operator
movieAnamorphosis
1993 · Director, Animation, Art Direction, Camera Operator, Editor, Decorator
movieStille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
1992 · Director, Animation, Camera Operator
movieThe Comb
1991 · Director, Writer, Animation, Art Direction, Camera Operator, Editor
movieThe Calligrapher
1991 · Director, Animation
movieEx Voto
1989 · Director
movieRain Dance
1988 · Director
movieRehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
1988 · Director, Cinematography, Animation, Decorator
movieStille Nacht I: Dramolet
1988 · Director
movieTales of the Brothers Quay
1987 · Director
movieStreet of Crocodiles
1986 · Director, Editor, Writer, Production Design, Animation
movieThis Unnameable Little Broom
1985 · Director, Writer, Director of Photography
movieThe Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
1984 · Director, Director of Photography
movieThe Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film
1984 · Director
Janáček: Intimate Excursions
movieJanáček: Intimate Excursions
1983 · Director
movieThe Falls
1982 · Ipson Fallari
Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929
movieIgor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929
1982 · Director
A Fratricide
movieA Fratricide
1981 · Director, Animation
moviePunch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy
1981 · Director, Animation
movieThe Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode
1981 · Director, Writer
movieNocturna Artificialia
1979 · Director, Cinematography
Kieślowski by Quays
movieKieślowski by Quays
— · Director