Westerdals, 2003-2005
Initial higher education in communication and applied creative practice, forming an early foundation for narrative, media, and production work.
About
A producer, cultural leader, and researcher concerned with what allows culture to endure.
Frederick Howard, formally Frederick P. N. Howard, works across cultural leadership, audiovisual production, governance, and research. His profile combines company building, rights strategy, production leadership, teaching, and institutional thinking about how creative organisations endure, adapt, and perform. At the centre of that work is a strong commitment to a sustainable and independent Norwegian public sphere and cultural sector.
Overview
Howard's work is rooted in the idea that culture is not sustained by talent alone. It depends on structures that allow people to work together under pressure, carry artistic ambition over time, and retain coherence across institutions, markets, and teams.
As Chief Executive and producer at Storm Films, he has worked across feature films, international co-productions, broadcaster and platform-led projects, talent development, and collaborative production systems. His practice has also extended into sector governance, educational environments, and public debate around rights, policy, AI, and the future conditions for audiovisual culture.
His production work includes Three Wishes for Cinderella, Battle, and Captain Sabertooth and the Treasure of Lama Rama, alongside series work such as Vikingskool.
He is especially interested in what happens when cultural life is made more fragile by short-termism, weakened rights positions, institutional drift, or an increasingly dependent public sphere. Much of his public and professional work is driven by the question of how Norway can retain strong cultural institutions, independent producers, and a serious public conversation about the arts.
A recurring theme in Howard's public work is the long-term position of independent producers: how rights retention, sustainable business models, and institutional design affect whether cultural companies can remain artistically ambitious, economically durable, and strategically sovereign.
Frederick Howard holds a PhD in creative leadership. His research frames trust as infrastructure and develops the CCAB model, a framework for understanding how clarity, competence, authenticity, and benevolence shape collaborative performance in creative organisations.
Education
Formal training across communication, film, European producer development, and doctoral research.
The Norwegian Film School, 2005-2008
Professional film education at Den norske filmskolen, where Howard's practical foundation in the audiovisual field was consolidated through formal training in film craft, collaboration, and production culture.
ACE
Further producer development through ACE, the European training and network environment for independent producers, extending the profile into international project development and European co-production.
PhD in creative leadership, 2017-2026
Doctoral research pursued alongside his directorship at Storm Films, developing a practice-based contribution on trust, leadership, and collaborative infrastructure in complex creative organisations.
Defining strands
Four connected areas of responsibility.
Taken together, these strands describe a profile that is practical, public-facing, and unusually attentive to the systems that sit behind cultural achievement.
Cultural leadership
Stewarding institutions under pressure
Howard works on how creative organisations carry pressure, keep ambition intact, and remain operational through institutional strain.
System building
Building structures that carry the work
His approach centres on collaborative infrastructure, rights logic, and the practical architecture that makes complex work possible.
Production
Producing across format and reach
The production profile spans feature film, series, documentary, and family work with both public and commercial reach.
Research
Framing trust as infrastructure
His research turns producer knowledge into a language for trust, diagnosis, and leadership in collaborative organisations.
“Frederick Howard is one of the few who masters both the creative side of filmmaking and the business side of the show business.”
John M. Jacobsen, producer
“Frederick Howard's work with trust as active material is a significant contribution to our understanding of how high-performing teams function.”
Nils Harald Sødal, Professor of Performance Psychology
Selected roles
Representative offices and responsibilities.
Chief Executive / Producer, Storm Films
2017-present
Leading production, company strategy, talent, financing logic, transnational partnerships, and the structural conditions that support creative output.
Researcher in creative leadership
2017-2026
Developing a practice-derived framework for trust, authorship, responsibility, and collaborative performance in audiovisual work.
Sector representative and governance contributor
c. 2015-present
Contributing to public and professional debate on rights, funding, education, regulation, and the institutional conditions of audiovisual culture.
Public advocate for cultural independence
c. 2015-present
Advancing the case for a more sustainable Norwegian public sphere and cultural sector, with particular attention to independent production, public value, and institutional resilience.
Educational and institutional contributor
c. 2010-present
Working across teaching, mentoring, critique, and the development of stronger academic and professional environments for audiovisual media.
Next
Work and research.
The filmography and research pages offer a fuller view of the work.