diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index f795c797bf5..34fa1a2092a 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 ### _Black_
 
+- Fix handling of .gitignore files containing non-ASCII characters on Windows (#2229)
 - Respect `.gitignore` files in all levels, not only `root/.gitignore` file (apply
   `.gitignore` rules like `git` does) (#2225)
 - Restored compatibility with Click 8.0 on Python 3.6 when LANG=C used (#2227)
diff --git a/src/black/files.py b/src/black/files.py
index a0c92e8c415..de516156605 100644
--- a/src/black/files.py
+++ b/src/black/files.py
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ def get_gitignore(root: Path) -> PathSpec:
     gitignore = root / ".gitignore"
     lines: List[str] = []
     if gitignore.is_file():
-        with gitignore.open() as gf:
+        with gitignore.open(encoding="utf-8") as gf:
             lines = gf.readlines()
     return PathSpec.from_lines("gitwildmatch", lines)