diff --git a/render_povray/scripting.py b/render_povray/scripting.py
index 77e266ef022b7f6dbdc0cbf93b7fba6573ad7f75..9499eb3d5a3e3f4c8507aa9477ba26d9784e0e05 100755
--- a/render_povray/scripting.py
+++ b/render_povray/scripting.py
@@ -153,7 +153,8 @@ class ImportPOV(bpy.types.Operator, ImportHelper):
         for file in self.files:
             print("Importing file: " + file.name)
             file_pov = self.directory + file.name
-            for line in open(file_pov):
+            # Ignore any non unicode character
+            for line in open(file_pov, encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore'):
                 string = line.replace("{", " ")
                 string = string.replace("}", " ")
                 string = string.replace("<", " ")
@@ -184,7 +185,7 @@ class ImportPOV(bpy.types.Operator, ImportHelper):
                             ]
                             matrixes[index] = value
                             write_matrix = False
-            for line in open(file_pov):
+            for line in open(file_pov, encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore'):
                 S = line.replace("{", " { ")
                 S = S.replace("}", " } ")
                 S = S.replace(",", " ")