
Timothy Quay
Timothy Quay was born in 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA, as the identical twin of Stephen Quay. He studied at the Philadelphia College of Art and later at the Royal College of Art in London, where he began working with his brother in experimental animation. Timothy has directed and co-directed numerous 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 distinguished by surreal, detailed atmospheres, frozen worlds, and objects full of history, with a constant collaboration alongside Stephen throughout his career.
48 directing credits · 8 acting credits
Directing · 48

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005

Street of Crocodiles
1986

The Doll's Breath
2019

The Sandman
2000

Alice in Not So Wonderland
2007

The Comb
1991

Maska
2010

Anamorphosis
1993

Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
1988

This Unnameable Little Broom
1985

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
1984

Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
1993

Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
1988

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film
1984

In Absentia
2000

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection
2003

Nocturna Artificialia
1979

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013

The Summit
1995
Inventorium of Traces
2009

Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
1993

Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
2001

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
1992

VadeMecum
2021

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
2001

The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode
1981

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
2011

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
2021

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
2004

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
2007

Ghosts and Whispers
2022
Janáček: Intimate Excursions
1983
The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz
2022

The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
2000

Rain Dance
1988
Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929
1982

Kinoteka Ident
2009

Songs for Dead Children
2003

Eurydice: She, So Beloved
2007

Tales of the Brothers Quay
1987
A Fratricide
1981

Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy
1981

The Calligrapher
1991

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons
2010

Ex Voto
1989
Kieślowski by Quays
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