diff --git a/mvw-dl.py b/mvw-dl.py
index 2bf2639..d9a01e6 100644
--- a/mvw-dl.py
+++ b/mvw-dl.py
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ def validate_config_sections(
 
 def query_string_from_file(
         filename: str) -> str:
-    with open(filename, "r") as jsonfile:
+    with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as jsonfile:
         query_string = jsonfile.read()
         return query_string