An image conversion apparatus to perform a motion compensation and a motion compensation method. The image conversion apparatus includes a first buffer, a second buffer, and a third buffer that store sequentially incoming video fields in sequence, a motion estimator that estimates a motion vector between a first field stored in the first buffer and a third field stored in the third buffer, a motion compensator that compensates for a motion between the first field and the third field using the motion vector output from the motion estimator and thereby outputs an interpolated field, an output unit that outputs at least one of the interpolated fields output from the motion compensator and a second field stored in the second buffer, and a field selector that selects a field to be output from the output unit according to a film mode of the sequentially incoming video fields.