1) chluaid for submitting his awesome work on NG. probably the best animation on the portal right now. (Bitey of Brackenwood series, hitchHiker flashes)
2) sakupen for submitting refreshing stuff on NG. His flashes are really different from the others and nobody knew him before he submitted Dad's home and Walk-smash-walk.
3) MindChamber from becoming an unknown (well, he was unknown by many people even if he was there before 2004) artist to a really respected one with very good animation in his flashes. I also like his awesome games. (Taipan 3000 SE, Alloy: Arena and Pico's Unloaded are his flashes that I noticed.)
4) jack-sellington A new artist with a weird style, good animation, etc. He was unknown until recently. I don't even remember if he submitted anything before this year. (Story of a bear, Dead Love, NG horror show)
5) Master Samus for a huge improvement. First flash from him without sticks that I noticed: A Super Mario Story I. He continued his Killing Spree series which has good animation and nice special effects. I can't wait for the next episode of that series.
People that could deserve a mention:
Dave Teatro (banana phone), David Firth (milkman and salad fingers... he's not on my top 5 because I don't like his work), AloneInTheDark (alive), Granfaloon (I think that his work has improved during this year) and finally Piconjo for obvious reasons. Nobody can browse this site during a whole week without noticing the cool work that Piconjo has made and of course the trouble that he has caused.