Check out, and vote for, your favourite online animated short at the 12th Annual Webby Awards. A short description of each clip is below.

Presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the Webby Awards have honoured "excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites" since 1996.

In 2006, the Webbys added a series of Film and Video Awards categories, which allow voters to pick their favourite online content. Among these categories are Best Animated Online Short, which is a People's choice award (meaning Webaholic schmucks like us can vote for them).

Here are the nominees for this year's Webbys.

Thirty Second Bunnies Theatre Presents Brokeback Mountain (Starz Media/Angry Alien)

This episode spoofs Ang Lee's Oscar-winning 2005 film about a longstanding love affair between two young cowboys in the early 1960s. Gotta love the sheep and moose at the end of this short.

This is likely to be a sentimental favourite among voters, since many websites (including IMDb, JoBlo and this site) have long championed Thirty Second Bunnies Theatre. Also count Avatar director James Cameron among its fans: TSBT's version of his 1997 film Titanic even ended up as an Easter Egg on the DVD.

Check out this site's exclusive two-part interview with Thirty Second Bunnies Theatre creator Jennifer Shiman by clicking here and here.

Heavenly Sword Part III: The Divine Birth (Blink Ink/Chase)

This is part III of a 5-part series setting up the plotline for the popular Playstation 3 console game developed by Ninja Theory and Sony. It's not bad, but it's probably the stiffest looking animation of the five contestants. Fans of the game may vote for it, but in terms of sheer quality, there are much better nominees selected this year.

BTW, Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) voices the role and provided the motion capture for the villainous King Bohan in the game.

It's Jerry Time! Season 3 (www.itsjerrytime.com)

According to the site, It's JerryTime! is "an animated diary of a middle-aged single guy whose life is just a bit harder than it should be."

Unlike other nominees, JerryTime animators Jerry and Orin Zucker have chosen to submit highlights from several episodes, rather than a complete, stand-alone piece. Although it highlights the crazier visuals in the Zucker's catalogue, it doesn't present a coherent story the way all the other nominees do. Whether that approach works in its favour remains to be seen

Like Thirty Second Bunnies Theatre, JerryTime has a major profile advantage since it won an Emmy Award for Best Broadband Variety show in 2007.

New Yorker Animated Cartoons (RingTales)

Unlike many of the other nominees, this is not a stand-alone story, but a compilation of unrelated vignettes, all of which have their own punchline. There's some brilliant stuff in here, and the animation is a lot more traditional than the other contestants. Definitely the highest quotient of gags per second here. Favourites here include The Amazing Adventures of Wonder Cat, and 4 Ways to Save the Planet.

Samurai (General Electric's Imagination Theatre)

This is possibly the sweetest and most imaginative entry in this year's Webby awards. This Japanese-language animated short follows the adventures of a tiny samurai as he seeks to outwit an evil warlord after being handed a seemingly impossible quest. The twist at the end is a bit cliché, but the characterizations in the middle pushes this short to the next level. Bravo!

Webby Awards are "like a box of Cracker Jack - Everybody wins a prize"

With 600 nominees spread out over 119 categories, the Webbys aren't exactly exclusive. In his April 9th column, Slate's Jack Shafer complained that "I've heard of mail-order diploma mills that are more exclusive than the Webbys."

However, he weakens his position by pointing out that Slate is itself nominated for one of the categories, and adds, "Show how much you despise the Webby Awards by voting for Slate in the "People's Voice" contest. If we win, I'll denounce the rip-off from the podium provided Slate sends me."

You can get in on the Webby Award action (and vote for your favourite online animation) by clicking over here.

The Webby Awards are handed out on June 9th.

Fun Fact: Webby Award winners are restricted to five word acceptance speeches. Some memorable examples have included 2006's Cute Overload's speech, which was "Not bad for posting kittens" and TripAdvisor's "Because some hotels really suck".

In 2007, David Bowie memorably violated the rules by saying, "I only get five words? S**t, that was five. Four more there. That's three. Two."