diff --git a/libavutil/mem.c b/libavutil/mem.c
index f21e918e1510a9837cd257143587664dabbe15e2..741450b53faad14df4067cc3f232c98d6955f815 100644
--- a/libavutil/mem.c
+++ b/libavutil/mem.c
@@ -63,7 +63,8 @@ void *av_malloc(unsigned int size)
     ptr = (char*)ptr + diff;
     ((char*)ptr)[-1]= diff;
 #elif HAVE_POSIX_MEMALIGN
-    posix_memalign(&ptr,16,size);
+    if (posix_memalign(&ptr,16,size))
+        ptr = NULL;
 #elif HAVE_MEMALIGN
     ptr = memalign(16,size);
     /* Why 64?