Hey, Tom here. This is my list:
Super Flash Bros - Ok, thats me, but more importantly its Dim. With The Matrix Has You, Decline 1 + 2, Another Day 4, 5 & 6, FF7:ARB, and a few others I can't remember right now, hes had a busy year. Also, in terms of achievment, we've grown in popularity from off of the top 50 bookmarked artists to number 10 with just a few movies - something we're both really proud of.
Adam Phillips - cant be avoided really. If you worked for disney, you're going to be quite good at animating, and Prowlies just blew every other submission on NG out of the water in terms of animation. I have a feeling we havnt seen the last of Adam...
Rubberninja - this year saw a number of great movies coing from this guy - notably Theres Something About Halo and Van Helthing. We love his work, and he just keeps getting better, so he should certainly get a mention here
James Farr - Another unavoidable choice, he's brought us some great movies this year. Always stylish and smooth, his animation is some of the best on the site, not to mention great storytelling.
David Firth - If I'm getting a bit predictable in my choices, thats because they are obviously the right ones. When I first saw Salad Fingers, I was creeped out beyond belief, but as the series progressed, the humour behind it became more evident and I could see what David was trying to do. Oh, and he's from the UK too - bonus points there!
There are loads of others of course, names like Legendaryfrog, Knox, Dave (of RAB fame), Mousekliks and Cycon. But this is my personal top 5
Tom