diff --git a/sphinx/util/compat.py b/sphinx/util/compat.py
index b3f78ca7d..32ac11341 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/compat.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/compat.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
     :copyright: Copyright 2007-2018 by the Sphinx team, see AUTHORS.
     :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
 """
+from __future__ import absolute_import
 
 import sys
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING