An image display apparatus includes: a backlight configured to emit light; a liquid crystal panel configured to modulate light emitted from the backlight to make an image display; a backlight luminance calculating unit configured to calculate a light-emission luminance of the backlight such that a center value of a luminance range displayable on the liquid crystal panel defined depending on the light-emission luminance of the backlight substantially agrees with a center value of luminances of pixels forming an input image; a backlight controlling unit configured to control light emission of the backlight so that the light from the backlight is emitted with the calculated light-emission luminance; a luminance correcting unit configured to correct the luminance of each pixel in the input image in accordance with the calculated light-emission luminance; and a liquid crystal controlling unit configured to control modulation of the liquid crystal panel based upon the corrected input image.