The Rencontres d‟Arles Discovery Award goes to a photographer, or an artist making use of photography, whose work has recently been internationally recognized or deserves to be. The winner is chosen by the photography professionals present in Arles during opening week and receives 25,000 €. The curators of the 2010 edition of the Discovery Award were artists or directors or curators of major cultural institutions.

The 2010 Discovery Award nominators were Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Beatrix Ruf, Philippe Parreno, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The 2010 nominated artists were Anne Collier, Liz Deschenes, Roe Ethridge, Marlo Pascual, Gilad Ratman, Solmaz Shahbazi, Annette Kelm, Elad Lassry, Leigh Ledare, Trisha Donnelly, Shannon Ebner, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Darius Khondji, Kazuo Shinohara, and Taryn Simon.