Some of my favorites are:
Fast Viscoelastic Behavior with Thin Features - doing bad things to the Stanford bunny (a test model that replaced the buddah that replaced the Utah Teapot)
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/%7Ewojtan/
Articulated Mesh Animation from Multi-view Silhouettes - motion capture from silhouttes - no markers involved
http://people.csail.mit.edu/jovan/
Real-Time Gradient-Domain Painting -
http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/projects/gradient-paint/
Self-Animating Images: Illusory Motion Using Repeated Asymmetric Patterns
This will make your eyes buggy! they appear to move, but they don't.
http://graphics.csie.ncku.edu.tw/SAI/