diff --git a/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c b/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
index f11ae6e55c..1e01114b76 100644
--- a/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
+++ b/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #include "libavutil/avstring.h"
 #include "libavutil/common.h"
 #include "libavutil/eval.h"
+#include "libavutil/getenv_utf8.h"
 #include "libavutil/imgutils.h"
 #include "libavutil/internal.h"
 #include "libavutil/mathematics.h"
@@ -204,7 +205,7 @@ static av_cold int frei0r_init(AVFilterContext *ctx,
     }
 
     /* see: http://frei0r.dyne.org/codedoc/html/group__pluglocations.html */
-    if ((path = av_strdup(getenv("FREI0R_PATH")))) {
+    if (path = getenv_dup("FREI0R_PATH")) {
 #ifdef _WIN32
         const char *separator = ";";
 #else
@@ -231,12 +232,17 @@ static av_cold int frei0r_init(AVFilterContext *ctx,
         if (ret < 0)
             return ret;
     }
-    if (!s->dl_handle && (path = getenv("HOME"))) {
+    if (!s->dl_handle && (path = getenv_utf8("HOME"))) {
         char *prefix = av_asprintf("%s/.frei0r-1/lib/", path);
-        if (!prefix)
-            return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
+        if (!prefix) {
+            ret = AVERROR(ENOMEM);
+            goto home_path_end;
+        }
         ret = load_path(ctx, &s->dl_handle, prefix, dl_name);
         av_free(prefix);
+
+    home_path_end:
+        freeenv_utf8(path);
         if (ret < 0)
             return ret;
     }