The Telluride Film Festival has always drawn distinctive films and filmmakers--recent world premieres at the annual Labor Day weekend gathering include Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" and Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation."

Less well-known, though, is the Colorado festival's penchant for recruiting interesting artists to design its posters--a tally that includes Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Jim Dine, Francesco Clemente, Laurie Anderson and William Wegman.

On Tuesday, Telluride unveiled the artwork for this year's 37th annual festival, a distinctive design from Pixar Animation Studios' Ralph Eggleston. The "Toy Story" art director has credits on "Up" (art director, lighting), "Wall-E" (production design), "The Incredibles" (art direction) and "Finding Nemo" (production design). Eggleston also directed Pixar's Oscar-winning short "For the Birds."

“I was given complete creative license by the festival in this process and was further inspired by the famous hitchhiking scene from ‘It Happened One Night,' " Eggleston said in a statement. Said festival co-directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger: “The same thought and creativity that Ralph brings to his films is what he has brought to the design of this year’s festival poster."

While the festival is eager to announce its posters early, it never releases its film lineup until the day the festival opens. But there's already one high-profile film that might be in the Telluride mix if it can be completed in time: Boyle's "127 Hours," a drama about hiker Aron Ralston (played in the film by James Franco), who amputated his own right hand after being pinned by a rock in a 2003 Utah back country accident.

--John Horn