Avalon (1990) is a feature film directed by Barry Levinson. It is a semi-autobiographical story of a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants who have settled in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, at the beginning of the 20th century. It is the third in Levinson's series of four "Baltimore Films" — Diner (1982), Tin Men (1987), Avalon (1990), and Liberty Heights (1999) — all set in his hometown during the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Avalon explores the themes of Jewish assimilation and how modernity has changed American family life.

Avalon follows the Krichinsky family as they grow, become more prosperous, and eventually acquire a large home appliance store.

Levinson likes to place links between his films that are set in Baltimore. A Hudson automobile purchased in Avalon is later purchased and used in Diner. The house that the Krichinsky family leaves to move to the suburbs is later used as a residence in Tin Men.

Avalon received Academy Award nominations for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Best Music, Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design. Levinson's script won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Avalon (probably from the Welsh word afal, meaning apple) is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of the Kings of Britain") as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur (Caliburnus) was forged and later where Arthur was taken to recover from his wounds after the Battle of Camlann. Avalon was associated from an early date with mystical practices and people such as Morgan le Fay.

Geoffrey of Monmouth called it in Latin Insula Avallonis in the Historia. In the later Vita Merlini he called it Insula Pomorum the "isle of apples". The name is generally considered to be of Welsh origin (though an Old Cornish or Old Breton origin is also possible), derived from Old Welsh abal, "apple", or aball, "apple tree" (in later Middle Welsh spelled aval, avall; now Modern Welsh afal, afall). In Breton, apple is spelled "aval"/ "avaloù" in plural. It is also possible that the tradition of an "apple" island among the British was influenced by Irish legends concerning the otherworld island home of Manannán mac Lir and Lugh, Emain Ablach (also the Old Irish poetic name for the Isle of Man), where Ablach means "Having Apple Trees" – derived from Old Irish aball ("apple")—and is similar to the Middle Welsh name Afallach, which was used to replace the name Avalon in medieval Welsh translations of French and Latin Arthurian tales). All are etymologically related to the Gaulish root *aballo- (as found in the place name Aballo/Aballone, now Avallon in Burgundy or in the Italian surname Avallone) and are derived from a Common Celtic *abal- "apple", which is related at the Proto-Indo-European level to English apple, Russian яблоко (jabloko), Latvian abele, et al.

The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.

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