diff --git a/IPython/core/tests/test_run.py b/IPython/core/tests/test_run.py
index 1f24f28..c5f4e80 100644
--- a/IPython/core/tests/test_run.py
+++ b/IPython/core/tests/test_run.py
@@ -240,3 +240,10 @@ tclass.py: deleting object: C-third
         _ip.run_cell("zz = 23")
         _ip.magic('run -i %s' % self.fname)
         tt.assert_equals(_ip.user_ns['yy'], 23)
+    
+    def test_unicode(self):
+        """Check that files in odd encodings are accepted."""
+        mydir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
+        na = os.path.join(mydir, 'nonascii.py')
+        _ip.magic('run %s' % na)
+        tt.assert_equals(_ip.user_ns['u'], u'Ўт№Ф')
diff --git a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
index 2c9df7c..50a1e4d 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
     
     def execfile(fname, glob, loc=None):
         loc = loc if (loc is not None) else glob
-        exec compile(open(fname).read(), fname, 'exec') in glob, loc
+        exec compile(open(fname, 'rb').read(), fname, 'exec') in glob, loc
     
     # Refactor print statements in doctests.
     _print_statement_re = re.compile(r"\bprint (?P<expr>.*)$", re.MULTILINE)