diff --git a/Lib/tabnanny.py b/Lib/tabnanny.py
index 0ae5e9f0df2..3a8cd373be1 100755
--- a/Lib/tabnanny.py
+++ b/Lib/tabnanny.py
@@ -93,8 +93,11 @@ def check(file):
                 check(fullname)
         return
 
+    with open(file, 'rb') as f:
+        encoding, lines = tokenize.detect_encoding(f.readline)
+
     try:
-        f = open(file)
+        f = open(file, encoding=encoding)
     except IOError as msg:
         errprint("%r: I/O Error: %s" % (file, msg))
         return
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 66433e4f018..f52ec6d381a 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #8774: tabnanny uses the encoding cookie (#coding:...) to use the
+  correct encoding
+
 - Issue #7507: Quote "!" in pipes.quote(); it is special to some shells.
 
 - Issue #8663: distutils.log emulates backslashreplace error handler. Fix