diff --git a/libavutil/file_open.c b/libavutil/file_open.c
index cc302f2f76..57c5e78d51 100644
--- a/libavutil/file_open.c
+++ b/libavutil/file_open.c
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ static int win32_open(const char *filename_utf8, int oflag, int pmode)
     wchar_t *filename_w;
 
     /* convert UTF-8 to wide chars */
-    if (utf8towchar(filename_utf8, &filename_w))
+    if (get_extended_win32_path(filename_utf8, &filename_w))
         return -1;
     if (!filename_w)
         goto fallback;
diff --git a/libavutil/wchar_filename.h b/libavutil/wchar_filename.h
index 90f082452c..94f8ce54b5 100644
--- a/libavutil/wchar_filename.h
+++ b/libavutil/wchar_filename.h
@@ -40,6 +40,172 @@ static inline int utf8towchar(const char *filename_utf8, wchar_t **filename_w)
     MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, filename_utf8, -1, *filename_w, num_chars);
     return 0;
 }
+
+/**
+ * Checks for extended path prefixes for which normalization needs to be skipped.
+ * see .NET6: PathInternal.IsExtended()
+ */
+static inline int path_is_extended(const wchar_t *path)
+{
+    if (path[0] == L'\\' && (path[1] == L'\\' || path[1] == L'?') && path[2] == L'?' && path[3] == L'\\')
+        return 1;
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Checks for a device path prefix.
+ * see .NET6: PathInternal.IsDevicePath()
+ */
+static inline int path_is_device_path(const wchar_t *path)
+{
+    if (path[0] == L'\\' && path[1] == L'\\' && path[2] == L'.' && path[3] == L'\\')
+        return 1;
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Performs path normalization by calling GetFullPathNameW().
+ * see .NET6: PathHelper.GetFullPathName()
+ */
+static inline int get_full_path_name(wchar_t **ppath_w)
+{
+    int num_chars;
+    wchar_t *temp_w;
+
+    num_chars = GetFullPathNameW(*ppath_w, 0, NULL, NULL);
+    if (num_chars <= 0) {
+        errno = EINVAL;
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    temp_w = (wchar_t *)av_calloc(num_chars, sizeof(wchar_t));
+    if (!temp_w) {
+        errno = ENOMEM;
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    num_chars = GetFullPathNameW(*ppath_w, num_chars, temp_w, NULL);
+    if (num_chars <= 0) {
+        errno = EINVAL;
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    av_freep(ppath_w);
+    *ppath_w = temp_w;
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Normalizes a Windows file or folder path.
+ * Expansion of short paths (with 8.3 path components) is currently omitted
+ * as it is not required for accessing long paths.
+ * see .NET6: PathHelper.Normalize().
+ */
+static inline int path_normalize(wchar_t **ppath_w)
+{
+    int ret;
+
+    if ((ret = get_full_path_name(ppath_w)) < 0)
+        return ret;
+
+    /* What .NET does at this point is to call PathHelper.TryExpandShortFileName()
+     * in case the path contains a '~' character.
+     * We don't need to do this as we don't need to normalize the file name
+     * for presentation, and the extended path prefix works with 8.3 path
+     * components as well
+     */
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Adds an extended path or UNC prefix to longs paths or paths ending
+ * with a space or a dot. (' ' or '.').
+ * This function expects that the path has been normalized before by
+ * calling path_normalize() and it doesn't check whether the path is
+ * actually long (> MAX_PATH).
+ * see .NET6: PathInternal.EnsureExtendedPrefix() *
+ */
+static inline int add_extended_prefix(wchar_t **ppath_w)
+{
+    const wchar_t *unc_prefix           = L"\\\\?\\UNC\\";
+    const wchar_t *extended_path_prefix = L"\\\\?\\";
+    const wchar_t *path_w               = *ppath_w;
+    const size_t len                    = wcslen(path_w);
+    wchar_t *temp_w;
+
+    /* We're skipping the check IsPartiallyQualified() because
+     * we expect to have called GetFullPathNameW() already. */
+    if (len < 2 || path_is_extended(*ppath_w) || path_is_device_path(*ppath_w)) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    if (path_w[0] == L'\\' && path_w[1] == L'\\') {
+        /* unc_prefix length is 8 plus 1 for terminating zeros,
+         * we subtract 2 for the leading '\\' of the original path */
+        temp_w = (wchar_t *)av_calloc(len - 2 + 8 + 1, sizeof(wchar_t));
+        if (!temp_w) {
+            errno = ENOMEM;
+            return -1;
+        }
+        wcscpy(temp_w, unc_prefix);
+        wcscat(temp_w, path_w + 2);
+    } else {
+        // The length of extended_path_prefix is 4 plus 1 for terminating zeros
+        temp_w = (wchar_t *)av_calloc(len + 4 + 1, sizeof(wchar_t));
+        if (!temp_w) {
+            errno = ENOMEM;
+            return -1;
+        }
+        wcscpy(temp_w, extended_path_prefix);
+        wcscat(temp_w, path_w);
+    }
+
+    av_freep(ppath_w);
+    *ppath_w = temp_w;
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Converts a file or folder path to wchar_t for use with Windows file
+ * APIs. Paths with extended path prefix (either '\\?\' or \??\') are
+ * left unchanged.
+ * All other paths are normalized and converted to absolute paths.
+ * Longs paths (>= MAX_PATH) are prefixed with the extended path or extended
+ * UNC path prefix.
+ * see .NET6: Path.GetFullPath() and Path.GetFullPathInternal()
+ */
+static inline int get_extended_win32_path(const char *path, wchar_t **ppath_w)
+{
+    int ret;
+    size_t len;
+
+    if ((ret = utf8towchar(path, ppath_w)) < 0)
+        return ret;
+
+    if (path_is_extended(*ppath_w)) {
+        /* Paths prefixed with '\\?\' or \??\' are considered normalized by definition.
+         * Windows doesn't normalize those paths and neither should we.
+         */
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    if ((ret = path_normalize(ppath_w)) < 0)
+        return ret;
+
+    // see .NET6: PathInternal.EnsureExtendedPrefixIfNeeded()
+    len = wcslen(*ppath_w);
+    if (len >= MAX_PATH) {
+        if ((ret = add_extended_prefix(ppath_w)) < 0)
+            return ret;
+    }
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
 #endif
 
 #endif /* AVUTIL_WCHAR_FILENAME_H */
