The Sedona International Film Festival’s opening was a great hit as Dr. Elvis Francois performed a few of the greatest hits for a few hundred guests in the Sedona Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, Feb. 19.

From cover songs like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Alright” by Mike Yung, Dr. Elvis showed off his full range of singing talent. He also sang an original song for the first time, “Broken Pieces,” which he just released last week.

“Everyone here has spent the past two years in this global pandemic, giant times of uncertainty,” Francois said. “But the cool thing about all of this is that one of the things that I realized is in the darkest of times, nothing shines brighter than the human spirit.”

Francois, an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta, began his career as a viral singing sensation in 2020. His two hour long performance to begin the week long film festival was a touching moment to him as well, since much of his childhood memories involved movies.

“Growing up, we were always watching movies. Any film that we watched was an opportunity to travel the world,” Francois said. “We would watch ‘Rush Hour’ growing up and we would be in Beijing. We watched the old Westerns and we’d be in the heart of Texas. And so for us, film was an incredible way to see how much more of the world there was.”

At the end of his performance, Sedona International Film Festival executive director Patrick Schweiss presented Francois with Humanitarian Award for the festival in honor of his work to uplift audiences and patients during the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In all seriousness I’ve done this festival for 18 years, and I can honestly say I’ve never been as inspired by anyone than you tonight,” Schweiss said to Francois.

Sedona Red Rock News did a full interview with Francois in the Feb. 16 edition.