Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method and a program which can reduce the bit amount included in a stream and a used region of a memory. In an image encoding apparatus 51, when an object slice is a B slice, the tap number of a variable interpolation filter (AIF) is determined, for example, as four taps. Therefore, even in the case where bidirectional prediction of a 4×4 size is carried out, only it is necessary to read in, in addition to pixels of 4×4 blank squares obtained after the interpolation process, pixels of squares to which slanting lines are applied, that is, 98=2×49 pixels from the forward direction and the succeeding direction from a frame memory. In other words, in comparison with a conventional case, 32 pixels indicated by dark squares are not required for the interpolation process any more. The present invention can be applied, for example, to an image encoding apparatus for encoding, for example, on the basis of the H.264/AVC method.