A liquid crystal display apparatus in an embodiment of the invention, in which each frame period is divided into a first period for writing the non-video signals, a second period for writing the video signals to the respective pixels, and a third period for maintaining the video signals in the respective pixels; and in which a control unit (1) calculates a backlight luminance value and gamma conversion values based on the distribution of the gradation values prior to the second period, (2) gamma-converts the input video signals based on the gamma conversion values and writes gamma-converted video signals into the respective pixels during the second period, (3) causes the backlight to emit light based on the backlight luminance value during the third period.