Lamberto Vera Avellana NA February 12, 1915 – April 25, 1991) was a prominent Filipino film and stage director.

In 1976, Avellana was named by President Ferdinand Marcos as the first National Artist of the Philippines for Film.

Born in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Avellana was educated at the Ateneo de Manila AB '37, where he developed what turned out to be a lifelong interest in the theater.

He taught at the Ateneo after graduation and married his teenage sweetheart Daisy Hontiveros, an actress who eventually also became a National Artist in 1999.

The film, though a box-office flop,[2] was particularly distinguished for its realism, which was atypical of Filipino cinema at the time.