Directing

Stephen Quay

Directing · Born 1947-06-17 · 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.

Credits · 50

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