PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - Two years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, Jason Reitman found only theoretical interest in his short-film entry.

This year, he found an eager buyer for his new short subject amid bidders hungry for quick-hit entertainment to distribute over the Internet and through other new channels.

The 22-year-old Reitman, son of ``Ghostbusters'' director Ivan Reitman, signed with AtomFilms, which acquires shorts to broadcast on its Web site and sells its movies to run in theaters, airplanes and on television.

The short-subject movie, once mainly a lab exercise for directors to show their talent in hopes of breaking into feature films, is becoming an end in itself as technology creates different ways to deliver material to viewers.

Interest in short movies is hotter than ever at Sundance. Internet buyers are cutting deals with directors of the 50-plus short films showing through next weekend and are being inundated with videos from short moviemakers whose features did not make the festival cut.

The festival includes seminars on distributing or marketing films over the Internet. There's an interactive lounge showcasing new entertainment technology. Companies such as Mediatrip.com and IFilms.com trolled the festival to meet with filmmakers and hunt for Web site content. AtomFilms' staff cruised Park City in a recreational vehicle where directors could drop off videos for the company to consider.

The Internet is ``great for filmmakers. It's a breakthrough. It's not the old, difficult audition process,'' said Skip Paul, chief executive of IFilm, which is trying to become an all-purpose Web destination for movie-makers. ``If their film is good, there's immediate exposure for it.''

At Sundance in 1998, Reitman kept hearing about buyers interested in short films such as his ``Operation,'' a comedy about kidney stealing. But the interest was hazy, and ``Operation'' never sold.

``I'd be told people were purchasing short films and I'd ask, 'Why, what are they going to do with them?''' Reitman said.

His entry this year, the life-after-death comedy ``In God We Trust,'' was bought a few days into the festival to run on the distributor's Web site, www.atomfilms.com. The company said it also is working on a deal to sell the 16-minute movie to a cable-TV channel and looks to market it to other outlets.

Under AtomFilms' standard deal, filmmakers such as Reitman are paid $500 to $1,000 upfront then receive a percentage of revenues if their movies sell to TV, airlines or other places. The most successful of AtomFilms' 800 shorts have brought in nearly $100,000, said company founder Mika Salmi.

Only a fraction of Internet users have high-speed, broadband connections needed to make viewing films practical. The download time even for the shortest of shorts generally is too long for Web browsers over a telephone line.

Many colleges, though, already are wired for broadband, making campuses a prime market for Internet entertainment.

Festival organizers are encouraged by the interest in short films but say time will tell if it benefits filmmakers.

``It's good if it gets the films to audiences that want to see them,'' said John Cooper, Sundance associate director. ``I still want to see someone make his money back on a short film.''