
Timothy Quay
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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.
Known for
Credits

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (2025)
Director

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)
Director

The Sandman (2000)
Director

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005)
Director

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

Rain Dance (1988)
Director

The Doll's Breath (2019)
Director

Songs for Dead Children (2003)
Director

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984)
Director

Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Director

Anamorphosis (1993)
Director

Tales of the Brothers Quay (1987)
Director

Alice in Not So Wonderland (2007)
Director

In Absentia (2000)
Director

Maska (2010)
Director
Inventorium of Traces (2009)
Director

Eurydice: She, So Beloved (2007)
Director

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

The Summit (1995)
Director

The Comb (1991)
Director

This Unnameable Little Broom (1985)
Director

Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988)
Director

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons (2010)
Director

Ex Voto (1989)
Director

The Calligrapher (1991)
Director
Igor Stravinsky: The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920-1929 (1982)
Director

VadeMecum (2021)
Director

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse (2001)
Director

The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode (1981)
Director

Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods (1993)
Director

Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy (1981)
Director

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013)
Director

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

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992)
Director

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

Stille Nacht V: Dog Door (2001)
Director

Ghosts and Whispers (2022)
Director
The Art Teacher from Drohobycz: Bruno Schulz (2022)
Director

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003 (2004)
Director

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem (2021)
Director
Janáček: Intimate Excursions (1983)
Director

Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988)
Director
A Fratricide (1981)
Director

Kinoteka Ident (2009)
Director

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

Nocturna Artificialia (1979)
Director

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers (2007)
Director
Kieślowski by Quays (—)
Director





