STEPHEN QUAY

Stephen Quay
Stephen Quay
Gender: Male
Known for: Directing
Birthday: June 17, 1947
Place of Birth: Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA

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

Production

TBA·
Kieślowski by Quays
Director
2025·
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Editor, Sound, Director, Screenplay, Animation
2022·
The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz
Director
2022·
Ghosts and Whispers
Director, Animation
2021·
11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
Director
2021·
VadeMecum
Director
2019·
The Doll's Breath
Director
2015·
Quay
Thanks
2013·
Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
Director, Animation, Writer
2011·
Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
Editor, Animation, Sound, Director
2010·
Maska
Writer, Director
2010·
Wonderwood: Comme des garçons
Director
2009·
Kinoteka Ident
Director
2009·
Inventorium of Traces
Editor, Director, Sound Designer, Director of Photography
2007·
Alice in Not So Wonderland
Cinematography, Writer, Director
2007·
Eurydice: She, So Beloved
Editor, Set Designer, Director
2007·
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
Director
2005·
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Production Design, Writer, 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
Director
2003·
Songs for Dead Children
Director
2001·
Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
Director
2001·
Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
Writer, Director
2000·
In Absentia
Animation, Director
2000·
The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
Director
2000·
The Sandman
Director
1995·
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
Writer, Director
1995·
The Summit
Director
1993·
Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
Animation, Camera Operator, Director
1993·
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
Camera Operator, Animation, Director
1993·
Anamorphosis
Decorator, Camera Operator, Animation, Editor, Art Direction, Director
1992·
Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
Camera Operator, Animation, Director
1991·
The Comb
Art Direction, Camera Operator, Editor, Animation, Writer, Director
1991·
The Calligrapher
Animation, Director
1989·
Ex Voto
Director
1988·
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
Decorator, Animation, Cinematography, Director
1988·
Rain Dance
Director
1988·
Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
Director
1987·
Tales of the Brothers Quay
Director
1986·
Street of Crocodiles
Production Design, Writer, Animation, Editor, Director
1985·
This Unnameable Little Broom
Director of Photography, Writer, Director
1984·
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
Director of Photography, 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
Animation, Director
1981·
The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode
Director, Writer
1981·
Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy
Animation, Director
1979·
Nocturna Artificialia
Cinematography, Director