The Brothers Quay’s Long-Awaited Feature Return, ‘Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass,’ Gets August 29 U.S. Theatrical Release Date

Animation auteurs Stephen and Timothy Quay make a long-awaited return to feature filmmaking with Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, which will make its U.S. theatrical debut at Film Forum in New York on Friday, August 29. The film is the American-born, U.K.-based twins’ first full-length feature in 20 years.

The film world premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and has since screened to acclaim at the BFI London Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Inspired by the writings of Polish modernist Bruno Schulz, Sanatorium follows a man named Josef who arrives at a crumbling, otherworldly sanatorium to visit his dying father. What begins as a visit soon turns into a hypnotizing odyssey through dream logic, fractured time, and haunted memory. Told in seven segments, each corresponding to a mystical lens through which Josef views his surroundings, the film blends the Quays’ signature stop-motion animation with live-action sequences.

The Brothers Quay, based in London since the 1970s, have long been regarded as visionary artists in the realm of stop-motion animation. Their 1986 short film Street of Crocodiles — also based on Schulz’s writings — is one of the most influential stop-motion films of the late 20th Century. Other acclaimed works include The Comb (1991), a hallucinatory tale of a porcelain doll navigating a dreamer’s imagination, and In Absentia (2000), a collaboration with avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

To celebrate the premiere of Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Film Forum will present The Quay Brothers — On 35mm on Wednesday, August 27. Curated by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, a longtime admirer of the Quays, the program features three of their seminal short films — In Absentia, The Comb, and Street of Crocodiles — alongside Nolan’s own 2015 short documentary Quay, which provides a rare glimpse into the brothers’ shadowy studio and creative methods.

Produced by Lucie Conrad and Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik, with animation cinematography and puppet design by the Quays themselves, Sanatorium is a UK-Poland-Germany co-production and is being released in the U.S. by KimStim. The film’s music is composed by Timothy Nelson, with live-action cinematography by Bartosz Bieniek.