Clockwork is winning the indie image war
It seems like every month, another beloved independent production company torches their reputation in exchange for funding. First, it was Mubi, which met with fierce backlash after receiving $100million from an investment firm that helped fund an Israeli defence startup in the midst of the ongoing war in Gaza.
More recently, it was A24, the production company so successful at branding that it’s become more of a lifestyle for filmgoers than a corporation. Last month, it announced that it had entered into a $75m partnership with Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind, sparking rage from its fanbase.
Whether it’s aligning with genocide or helping to poison cinema and supercharge unemployment with AI, both companies have severely tarnished their reputations for the sake of “growth” and called into question the very nature of independence. If a company has to trash its ethical standing in order to survive, can it really be considered independent?
Elsewhere in Hollywood, things are looking equally grim. Warner Bros is on the brink of being acquired by Paramount, a move that many in the industry warn could lead to creative censorship due to the political ties of Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison. But somewhere in the darkness was a pinprick of light. In December 2025, it was announced that Warner Bros was creating a new speciality label, Clockwork, which would focus on low-budget, independent productions and restorations of classic Warner Bros titles.
There is always reason to be sceptical of any subsidiary of a major company, especially Warner Bros. Clockwork itself is essentially just a reincarnation of Warner Independent Pictures, which produced such indie gems as Before Sunset, Goodnight, and Good Look, and For Your Consideration in the early 2000s before being unceremoniously gutted by Warner Bros in 2008. Whenever studios are strapped for cash, the first head to roll is always the speciality production arm.
However, in light of the recent transgressions of Mubi and A24, a relatively independent subsidiary of a major studio looks a little more promising than it might have a few years ago. If truly independent companies are having to make deals with the devil in order to stay afloat, no company can claim to be free from moral compromise.
Warner Bros is rife with controversies, of course, from labour disputes to its own stance on AI. Paramount is even worse. At this point, it is little more than a mouthpiece for the lies of the Trump administration, and its deal to acquire Warner Bros is bankrolled, in large part, by Gulf sovereign wealth funds. It’s all pretty bleak, but somehow, Clockwork’s nascent image has remained relatively unscathed.
It all comes down to boldness. Instead of starting out with a few safe titles, the company came out swinging, announcing that it would be distributing Sean Baker’s first film after Anora swept the Oscars in 2025. Even more significant was its announcement that it would be releasing a long-awaited, hard-won restoration of Ken Russell’s wildly controversial masterpiece, The Devils.
Having censored the film for decades, Warners finally agreed to release it in its most complete form under Clockwork’s supervision. It was not just a triumph for arthouse cinema fans, but a powerful statement from a company that was only a few months old at the time.
More recently, the company announced two more daring titles. Nasty reteams Rose Byrne with her If I Had Legs I’d Kick You director, Mary Bronstein. The 2025 film not only gave Byrne her best role to date, but was also polarising – electrifying some audiences and sending others into a sweaty tailspin of discomfort. The fact that Clockwork is signing on to a reunion with this duo suggests, yet again, that it isn’t afraid to back potentially contentious films that do not appeal to a wide audience.
Their other buzzy announcement was that the company would be distributing the upcoming film from Park Chan-wook, The Brigands of Rattlecreek, starring Matthew McConaughey, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. Park is one of the most distinctive directors working today, whose work can be both stomach-churning, as shown in Oldboy, and stylishly erotic, as shown in The Handmaiden. Yet again, the company is putting its faith in an often polarising but undeniably visionary filmmaker.
Clockwork has said that it will only release a few titles a year, and so far, it seems to be going for titles of the highest quality that may only have a niche appeal. None of these films has been released yet, of course, but their taste has already been demonstrated: Earlier this year, they fought tooth and claw to win the distribution rights to Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, the best film of the year so far. A24 won in the end, but the struggle revealed that, with a sample size of one, Clockwork’s taste is flawless. It is, after all, in the hands of former Neon executive Christian Parkes and the duo Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, who took a gamble on Sinners and One Battle After Another.
If the recent funding controversies of Mubi and A24 tell us anything, it’s that independent cinema is in a rough place, and there’s no reason we should give Clockwork a free pass just because it’s a few places removed from the funding decisions of its future parent company. But at the moment, its bold, commendably risky slate of movies is projecting creative independence at a time when its key indie rivals are facing an image crisis.
If this gamble pays off and it manages to continue separating its image from its corporate overlords, audiences might forget to ask where the money is coming from.
