diff --git a/dbtemplates/utils/template.py b/dbtemplates/utils/template.py
index 93bc1fd..ef4579e 100644
--- a/dbtemplates/utils/template.py
+++ b/dbtemplates/utils/template.py
@@ -52,6 +52,6 @@ def get_template_source(name):
 def check_template_syntax(template):
     try:
         Template(template.content)
-    except TemplateSyntaxError, e:
+    except TemplateSyntaxError as e:
         return (False, e)
     return (True, None)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 778878f..fdd5aa3 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 
 def read(*parts):
-    return codecs.open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), *parts)).read()
+    filename = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), *parts)
+    with codecs.open(filename, encoding='utf-8') as fp:
+        return fp.read()
 
 
 def find_version(*file_paths):