the audience applauded

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is the story of a bird called Dougal who has a secret fear of flying. Like others he lives in a bird box high in a tree, but his is the only one with a long ladder leading to the ground. When all the birds fly south for the winter, Dougal stocks up with supplies to stick it out, although a series of events force him to confront his fear, well, or at least confront the idea of having to confront his fear.Fear of Flying is a nicely done animated short film which mixes cute animation with sharper humor to mostly good effect. The narrative device of a creature struggling with the idea of doing what comes naturally is not a new one (Antz probably being the biggest example) but it is still well used here. The writing produces some decent laughs at a couple of key moments which play up the silliness by overdoing some dramatics, but perhaps the cute-factor influences too much and it isn't as sharp as it could have been and seems overly gentle too often. This approach fits the animation though, which is very well done.The legs of the characters feel a bit odd as they look like they have been digitally edited, but otherwise the birds etc all look like felt puppets, which is what they are. This mix of digital and the real works pretty well and I liked all the characters involved. The voice work is decent but is a little bit part of the film feeling softer than it otherwise would. Neither Doherty nor Duffin seem to bring much spark to their characters; they do well enough in a gentle way, but their voices never really stayed with me and I thought the animation did more to create character than they did. Conor Finnegan direction is good though, with nice awareness of good shots and tone – particularly impressive when you read more as to how it was made and learn how geographically wide the team members were.

A friend of mine wouldn't watch this if you'd paid him to do so. It's not only a short movie, but also an animated one. If you do not fear animation (short movies and heights also), then I can recommend this one. It's a nice little (some would call it adorable) story about a bird, that has one major issue.Not easy being a bird, in that condition (one might actually question the term "bird" and if it applies I reckon). But the movie is short and sweet (though also has some nice little punches here and there), and is an absolute delight to watch. It may be a bit predictable, but with a short movie that shouldn't matter at all

I recently received a phone call from my oldest daughter. She's been attending a film festival in Philadelphia and had to tell me about a couple wonderful films she saw--one of which as "Fear of Flying". Because of her recommendation, I decided to give this film a try.The story to "Fear of Flying" is good--the animation style is even better. Using puppets and post-production graphics software to digitally remove the rods controlling the puppets, Conor Finnegan, has made an adorable and very unique animated film.The film is about a very scared bird--so scared that he refuses to fly south for the winter. However, after a while, it gets very cold and he becomes very hungry--so he needs to find an alternative solution. How all this plays out and what occurs when he arrives in the sun is something you should see for yourself. Trust me--it's pretty clever.For a first film, "Fear of Flying" is an amazing and very impressive short. I can't wait to see more from this guy.