French Films

French Films is a Finnish rock band formed in 2010. After being signed to the Finnish label GAEA Booking and Records in fall of 2010, they released their first EP Golden Sea, which was followed by their debut album Imaginary Future in fall of 2011. The band released their second album 'White Orchid' in April 2013.
The band's original line-up featured Johannes Leppänen (guitar, vocals), Joni Kähkönen (guitar, vocals), Mikael Jurmu (bass, vocals), Santtu Vainio (synth, vocals) and Antti Inkiläinen (drums), who formed the band in February 2010. Inkiläinen and Leppänen had previously been working together in a band, and they often played shows with Jurmu's band 'Yes Please!'. After growing accustomed to each other, they decided to start their own group. Leppänen later met Kähkönen in a local pub, who introduced him to Vainio. In October 2012 the band announced that Mikael had left the band and was replaced by Tuomas Asanti as the new bass player. Joni was replaced by Max Salonen in the beginning of 2014.
The name of the band was chosen when Kähkönen was speaking to Leppänen about a French foreign film he had just seen.
Since 2010 the band has been touring all over Europe, and also played shows in Japan, China and United States. Their first performance outside of Finland was in Skopje, Macedonia in the summer of 2010. French Films has been performing at some of the big European festivals like Roskilde Festival, Hultsfred Festival and Flow Festival. In July 2013 the band opened for Muse at their concert in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
French Films is a winner of the 2013 European Border Breakers Awards. The European Border Breakers Awards honour the best new music acts in Europe. The award ceremony took place at the Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival in Groningen (NL) in January 2013.