The committee members are Christoph Wiesner, director of the Rencontres d'Arles, which is to photography what Cannes is to cinema; Gu Zheng, a renowned Chinese photography critic and curator; Gwen Lee, co-founder of Singapore International Photography Festival; Rong Rong, celebrated Chinese photographer and co-founder of Three Shadows Photography Art Center, the first contemporary art space dedicated exclusively to photography in China; and Qi Yan, the art center's executive director.

The first festival highlight is "Exhibitions from Arles", featuring seven selected exhibits from this year's Rencontres d'Arles. The audience can view the works by Oscar-nominated German filmmaker Wim Wenders, and the 2023 Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award winner Samantha Box, among many other artists.

On show will also be the shortlisted works for the festival's two significant awards — the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award, which is for discovering and promoting promising Chinese image artists, and the Jimei x Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image, which is for scouting and nurturing outstanding young Chinese curators and researchers working with photography and moving image art. Visitors can check out eight one-person shows in the first category and five in the second.