diff --git a/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py b/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
index c0f9d58f9d..8e00c51dc3 100644
--- a/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
+++ b/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
@@ -549,7 +549,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
 
         input_files = [bf.work_path for bf in build_files]
         with NamedTemporaryFile(mode='w+') as input_files_list:
-            input_files_list.write('\n'.join(input_files))
+            input_files_list.write(force_str('\n'.join(input_files), encoding=DEFAULT_LOCALE_ENCODING))
             input_files_list.flush()
             args.extend(['--files-from', input_files_list.name])
             args.extend(self.xgettext_options)
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.9.8.txt b/docs/releases/1.9.8.txt
index 7265e166b8..8db5c3d01f 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.9.8.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.9.8.txt
@@ -12,3 +12,6 @@ Bugfixes
 * Fixed missing ``varchar/text_pattern_ops`` index on ``CharField`` and
   ``TextField`` respectively when using ``AddField`` on PostgreSQL
   (:ticket:`26889`).
+
+* Fixed ``makemessages`` crash on Python 2 with non-ASCII file names
+  (:ticket:`26897`).
diff --git a/tests/i18n/test_extraction.py b/tests/i18n/test_extraction.py
index bad7c23051..0e4d7889fb 100644
--- a/tests/i18n/test_extraction.py
+++ b/tests/i18n/test_extraction.py
@@ -256,6 +256,10 @@ class BasicExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
         self.assertIn("UnicodeDecodeError: skipped file not_utf8.txt in .",
                       force_text(out.getvalue()))
 
+    def test_unicode_file_name(self):
+        open(os.path.join(self.test_dir, 'vidéo.txt'), 'a').close()
+        management.call_command('makemessages', locale=[LOCALE], verbosity=0)
+
     def test_extraction_warning(self):
         """test xgettext warning about multiple bare interpolation placeholders"""
         os.chdir(self.test_dir)