AtomFilms Offers Oscar Shorts.

Tiny AtomFilms hopes to give forgotten films that get nominated every year in the Academy Awards_ short-film category a new lease on life by screening them on its Web site and selling video compilations. The Seattle-based company is quietly seeking to lock up distribution rights and copyrights for all 10 short films vying for Oscars at this year_s March show. Last week, AtomFilms slapped Alexander Jovy and J. J. Keith_s Oscar-nominated Holiday Romance on its Web site. Visitors can view a video-stream of the film in its 19-minute entirety for free. If they like it, they can buy a US$16.95, three-film video compilation that includes Holiday and a short film called Judgment, which stars Matthew McConaughey as a Texas cop. By Tuesday, AtomFilms president M. Salmi plans to sign up two more films. And by the Oscars, he is shooting for getting seven out of the 10 short films nominated up on his site. "There are a lot of people looking for interesting programming who would buy them," Salmi said in an interview at Variety_s Interactive Marketing Summit here Friday. "But there is never been a mechanism for filmmakers to get their shorts out to the public. We are helping by being that mechanism." Salmi said he_ll pay filmmakers royalties well in excess of Hollywood_s standard 10 to 15 percent of gross merchandise sales. They also get advance payments ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. "We want to be seen as film-friendly," said Salmi, whose resume includes a seven-year stint in the music industry signing artists like Nine Inch Nails and The Presidents of the United States of America for Sony and EMI.