Stephen Quay

Known for: Directing
Born: June 17, 1947, Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
Movies: 59

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.

Best-Known Movies

6.6

Street of Crocodiles

1986

6.0

Quay

2015

7.6

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

1995

6.9

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer

1984

7.3

The Falls

1982

6.3

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

2005

6.4

Stille Nacht I: Dramolet

1988

6.7

The Comb

1991

6.1

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?

1992

6.5

In Absentia

2000

Filmography

2026	Sledgehammer Revealed	Self
2017	The Music of Zdeněk Liška	Self
2015	The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015	Quay	Self
2011	Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers	Self
2010	Inside The Institute
2009	The Art of Time
2009	The Bug Trainer	Self - stop-motion animator
2006	The Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"
2003	The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection	Librarian
1982	The Falls	Ipson Fallari

Directing, Writing & Producing

2026	Postscriptum. Ruminations on My Craft	Director
2025	Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass	Director, Screenplay
2022	The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz	Director
2022	Ghosts and Whispers	Director
2021	11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem	Director
2021	VadeMecum	Director
2019	The Doll's Breath	Director
2013	Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.	Writer, Director
2011	Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)	Director
2010	Wonderwood: Comme des garçons	Director
2010	Maska	Director, Writer
2009	Kinoteka Ident	Director
2009	Inventorium of Traces	Director
2007	Eurydice: She, So Beloved	Director
2007	Alice in Not So Wonderland	Director, Writer
2007	Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers	Director
2005	The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes	Director, Writer
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	Director
2003	Songs for Dead Children	Director
2001	Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse	Director
2001	Stille Nacht V: Dog Door	Director, Writer
2000	The Sandman	Director
2000	In Absentia	Director
2000	The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993	Director
1995	Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life	Director, Writer
1995	The Summit	Director
1993	Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You	Director
1993	Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods	Director
1993	Anamorphosis	Director
1992	Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?	Director
1991	The Comb	Director, Writer
1991	The Calligrapher	Director
1989	Ex Voto	Director
1988	Rain Dance	Director
1988	Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies	Director
1988	Stille Nacht I: Dramolet	Director
1987	Tales of the Brothers Quay	Director
1986	Street of Crocodiles	Director, Writer
1985	This Unnameable Little Broom	Director, Writer
1984	The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer	Director
1984	The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film	Director
1983	Janáček: Intimate Excursions	Director
1982	Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929	Director
1981	A Fratricide	Director
1981	Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy	Director
1981	The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode	Director, Writer
1979	Nocturna Artificialia	Director

Data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.