To more accurately detect the film mode of a video signal.

The film mode detecting apparatus for the video signal detects the film mode of the video signal by using fields stored in first, second and third field buffers for successively buffering the fields of the video signal according to the input order. The apparatus has: a motion information calculating part for calculating the motion information of the fields by comparing the presence/absence of changes in the motions of the fields stored in the first field buffer and the third field buffer; a motion information buffer for storing the motion information by fields for the unit of prescribed fields; and a pattern matching part for comparing the motion information by fields stored for the unit of the prescribed fields with the pattern of a field having a fixed cycle based on 3-2 pull-down to the video signal, and judging whether the video signal is in the film mode according to whether the motion information matches the pattern.