diff --git a/libavcodec/exr.c b/libavcodec/exr.c
index 71946400c5..c32eea1b8f 100644
--- a/libavcodec/exr.c
+++ b/libavcodec/exr.c
@@ -220,9 +220,9 @@ static union av_intfloat32 exr_half2float(uint16_t hf)
  *
  * @return normalized 16-bit unsigned int
  */
-static inline uint16_t exr_flt2uint(uint32_t v)
+static inline uint16_t exr_flt2uint(int32_t v)
 {
-    unsigned int exp = v >> 23;
+    int32_t exp = v >> 23;
     // "HACK": negative values result in exp<  0, so clipping them to 0
     // is also handled by this condition, avoids explicit check for sign bit.
     if (exp <= 127 + 7 - 24) // we would shift out all bits anyway