Stephen Quay
Born: 1947-06-17 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
Known For: Directing
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.
Filmography
2025
- Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass ... (Director)
2022
- The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz ... (Director)
- Ghosts and Whispers ... (Animation)
2021
- 11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem ... (Director)
- VadeMecum ... (Director)
2019
- The Doll's Breath ... (Director)
2017
- The Music of Zdeněk Liška as Self
2015
- Quay as Self
- The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2013
- Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. ... (Animation)
2011
2010
- Maska ... (Director)
- Inside The Institute
- Wonderwood: Comme des garçons ... (Director)
2009
- The Art of Time
- The Bug Trainer as Self - stop-motion animator
- Inventorium of Traces ... (Sound Designer)
- Kinoteka Ident ... (Director)
2007
- Alice in Not So Wonderland ... (Writer)
- Eurydice: She, So Beloved ... (Director)
- Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers ... (Director)
2005
- The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes ... (Director)
2004
- Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003 ... (Director)
2003
- The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection as Librarian
- Songs for Dead Children ... (Director)
2001
- Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse ... (Director)
- Stille Nacht V: Dog Door ... (Director)
2000
- The Sandman ... (Director)
- In Absentia ... (Director)
- The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993 ... (Director)
1995
- Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life ... (Director)
- The Summit ... (Director)
1993
- Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods ... (Director)
- Anamorphosis ... (Director)
- Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You ... (Director)
1992
- Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? ... (Director)
1991
- The Calligrapher ... (Director)
- The Comb ... (Director)
1989
- Ex Voto ... (Director)
1988
- Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies ... (Director)
- Stille Nacht I: Dramolet ... (Director)
- Rain Dance ... (Director)
1987
- Tales of the Brothers Quay ... (Director)
1986
- Street of Crocodiles ... (Director)
1985
- This Unnameable Little Broom ... (Director)
1984
- The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film ... (Director)
- The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer ... (Director)
1983
- Janáček: Intimate Excursions ... (Director)
1982
- The Falls as Ipson Fallari
- Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929 ... (Director)
1981
- The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode ... (Director)
- Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy ... (Animation)
- A Fratricide ... (Director)
1979
- Nocturna Artificialia ... (Director)