Nick Fox-Gieg is an animator and video artist currently living in the Netherlands. His latest work is a short animated in Flash titled The Foxhole Manifesto, a 4:30 minute film featuring audio by poet Jeffrey McDaniel. The short is below, but I recommend going to his website for a higher-quality video version.

Han Hoogerbrugge, the Dutch animator and artist, has just finished a music video for The Young Punx, a London-based electronic dance duo. The video is for the song You’ve Got To…, which is off their forthcoming debut album.

Hoogerbrugge has gained popularity from his often interactive Flash animations and a series of Hotel shorts produced by Submarine Channel.

Amsterdam’s Submarine Channel, which was discussed here back in September of 2006, have just released a new online video collection called Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. This growing assembly of some of the best animated film title sequences in recent history, including a Flash-animated main title for the Yugoslavian film Made in Yu. The sequence was created in 2005 by Foreign Artists, a creative shop in Stockholm. Armin Osmancevic and Niklas Rissler directed and animated the piece in Flash and then assembled it in After Effects.

According to the Foreign Artists website, the Made in Yu title sequence was inspired by Miyazaki films like Spirited Away, and their work received even more praise than the film itself.

The SubmarineChannel is an Amsterdam-based online entertainment network that features a great deal of Flash animation. They’re hosts to none other than Han Hoogerbrugge, an avant-garde animator from Rotterdam whose series ‘Hotel’ plays on SubmarineChannel.

I’ve recently been in touch with Remco Vlaanderen, the editor of SubmarineChannel, and he confirmed that their latest release, Amaya, a haunting collaboration between animator Ryosuke Aoike (’Catman’ and ‘Perestroika’) and musician David Kristian, is indeed animated in Flash. The project also received some post touches in After Effects; adjusting colors and adding light effects.

And don’t miss ‘Valley of the Cnuties,’ a series by Craig Robinson.

The 2006 Annecy International Animated Film Festival announced their selections last month. For those not familiar with Annecy, it’s the world’s biggest and some say best animation festival, held over 6 days in Annecy, France. One of the things I like about the festival is that their selection of nominees is large and diverse.

This year, the ‘Internet Films’ category boasted several Flash-animated shorts, including some surely familiar to those frequenting this site. The category is split in two - ‘Short Films for Internet’ and ‘Series for Internet.’ My personal selections are below, but please visit the site to see them all.

SHORT FILMS FOR INTERNET

‘2-0-5: A JibJab Year in Review,’ is a short I have a personal bent towards as I work at JibJab, but it’s also a tight, vibrant satire. As with most of JibJab’s shorts, this one was made by a small handful of people, but mostly Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab.

‘Bendito Machine’ is one of a couple films in the category focusing on our capacity for hate and war. This 4:30 minute Flash-animated short is animated in silhouette, and it appears as if Jossie Malis did almost all of the work here. ‘Bendito’ is out of Spain, and is credited to a studio called Zumbakamera.

‘La mia migliore amica’ or ‘My Best Friend,’ hails from Italy, and was directed by Stefano Buonamico. The film centers on a Pakistani girl in a refuge camp, and her friendship with someone more fortunate. It appears as if the film was created for the humanitarian organization in Rome known as Medici Senza Frontiere. It was produced by a studio named Gordo, who animated ‘The Tribe,’ which is also well worth watching. Make sure you select your language preference before the movie starts, as they offer subtitles.

‘Le due cose preferite dagli esseri umani’ or ‘Two Things Human Beings Really Love to Do,’ also takes on the topic of war, and this time from the perspective of an alien race. I’d say this film is the most uniquely animated short in the selection, with bouncy scene builds and transitions, and the most engaging subtitles I’ve ever watched. Audio plays such a big role here, and I really enjoyed the sound effects and alien language. Luca Frattini, an Italian, directed, wrote and animated the short.

‘Sad Dog’ is a short Flash-animated film out of the Netherlands, created by ckoe. It’s a melancholic story about a misunderstood dog who loves birds.

I’m happy to see ‘The Mustache Contest,’ amongst the choices for this year’s festival. I really enjoyed this short, and wrote it up back in February. It’s a 4 minute film about a group of sea creatures who decide to have a mustache growing contest. It’s the creation of Mike Hollingsworth and Brittney Crump, and I really feel this one could easily slip into a long-running series.

SERIES FOR INTERNET

Adam Phillips is nominated at Annecy for ‘littleFoot,’ and I just heard from him that he’s going to the event. He’s up against a fellow Australian and good friend Bernard Derriman, who is nominated for his Arj and Poopy short ‘Unlucky in Love.’ Bernard was nominated last year for his music video ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me,’ and he won the Netsurfers Award for another Arj and Poopy film ‘Long Distance Relationship.’ Good luck guys!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite online. Head over to the Annecy website and mark your selection for the best Internet short before June 9th. The winners will be announced on June 10th.

Pepsico’s Croky Chips brand recently contracted Dutch animator Michiel Hoving to produce a series of Flash shorts for broadcast on Dutch television. The two shorts I’ve seen so far, which are both online, feature a chip-loving parrot (that’s a parrot, right?) who plays to adoring crowds at the airport and on a very serious-looking talk show. I’m assuming the panel guests on the talk show are caricatures of known Dutch personalities, but I can’t say for sure. It’s all well-animated, and I’d venture to say he draws directly into the computer with a tablet. Michiel’s signature wavy line-style seems indicative of a Wacom, and it really gives his work a unique appeal. Both shorts are cut tight, and a ‘more to come’ card is posted on his rep’s site, so I’ll keep my eyes trained to make sure we don’t miss the next installments of Michiel’s Croky ads. And if you just can’t have enough Hoving in your diet, head over to his homepage where you can see plenty more, and news about his upcoming 20-minute animated feature.

Thanks to Stefan de Groot, another Dutch animator, who sent along this story tip. You can see his work on his website, or you can go directly to ‘The Amazing World of Herr Professor Von Maulheim.’

****UPDATE****

Stefan sent along a few interesting updates to the story above…

The talkshow you see in the add is the most watched talkshow in The Netherlands called Barend&VanDorp. The Croky add aired during the commercial break of the Talkshow and the Talkshow hosts were not pleased; they did not know they were in the commercial. One of the guys advertises the competitor brand (Lacy Chips). It is not known if they’re management filed a lawsuit, but Croky Chips has withdrawn the Croky add with the talkshow hosts in it!!!! At the moment Michiel Hoving is working on a new Croky commercial.