
Director
Timothy Quay
79 years · Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA · 50 films
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.
Best known for

Street of Crocodiles
1986 · Director, Editor

Quay
2015 · Self

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995 · Director, Writer

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
1984 · Director, Cinematography


The Falls
1982 · Pulat Fallari
On Kanopy


The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005 · Director, Writer
On Metrograph
Filmography 50

Postscriptum. Ruminations on My Craft
2026 · Director


Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025 · Screenplay, Director
On OVID

Ghosts and Whispers
2022 · Director

11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
2021 · Director

VadeMecum
2021 · Director

The Doll's Breath
2019 · Director

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015 · Actor

Quay
2015 · Self

Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013 · Writer, Director

Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers
2011 · Self

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

Wonderwood: Comme des garçons
2010 · Director

Maska
2010 · Director, Writer

The Art of Time
2009 · Self

Kinoteka Ident
2009 · Director

The Bug Trainer
2009 · Self - stop-motion animator

Eurydice: She, So Beloved
2007 · Editor, Director

Alice in Not So Wonderland
2007 · Director, Writer

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
2007 · Director

The Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"
2006 · Actor


The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005 · Director, Writer
On Metrograph

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
2004 · Director

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

Songs for Dead Children
2003 · Director