Stephen Quay photo

🎬 Director

Stephen Quay

Age · 79 Born · Jun 17, 1947 From · Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA Films · 42

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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.

Known for

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem poster

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem

VadeMecum poster

The Doll's Breath poster

The Doll's Breath

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. poster

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.

Career timeline

2025

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

2022

Ghosts and Whispers

2021

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem

VadeMecum Notable

2019

The Doll's Breath

2013

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.

2011

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)

2010

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons

2009

2007

Eurydice: She, So Beloved

Alice in Not So Wonderland

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers Notable

2005

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

2004

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003

2003

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection

Songs for Dead Children

2001

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse

Stille Nacht V: Dog Door

2000

The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993

1995

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life Notable

1993

Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You

Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods

1992

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?

1991

The Calligrapher

1989

1988

Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies

Stille Nacht I: Dramolet

Full filmography

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass poster

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

Ghosts and Whispers poster

Ghosts and Whispers

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem poster

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem

VadeMecum poster

The Doll's Breath poster

The Doll's Breath

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. poster

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) poster

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons poster

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons

Maska poster

Kinoteka Ident poster

Eurydice: She, So Beloved poster

Eurydice: She, So Beloved

Alice in Not So Wonderland poster

Alice in Not So Wonderland

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers poster

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes poster

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003 poster

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection poster

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection

Songs for Dead Children poster

Songs for Dead Children

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse poster

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse

Stille Nacht V: Dog Door poster

Stille Nacht V: Dog Door

The Sandman poster

Continue exploring

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Curated collectionsMovies by mood & theme

11 Preliminary Orbits AroundView movie page

VadeMecumView movie page