According to the present invention, there is provided a image processing apparatus comprising: at least one memory which stores data of each of at least a first image and a second image having no dependence upon each other's data; a memory access unit which reads out the data from and writes the data in said memory; and a filtering processing unit which receives the data read out by said memory access unit, performs a deblocking filtering process on the received data, and supplies the processed data to said memory access unit, wherein said filtering processing unit alternately performs a deblocking filtering process on at least one block boundary of the first image, and a deblocking filtering process on at least one block boundary of the second image.