diff --git a/doc/filters.texi b/doc/filters.texi
index c939b8766c45d039f1d2b801c393ce82ae641281..9583e4e41bfc8e2afbe34d1627ee01eb2632c670 100644
--- a/doc/filters.texi
+++ b/doc/filters.texi
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ header and configure FFmpeg with --enable-frei0r.
 
 The filter supports the syntax:
 @example
-@var{filter_name}:@var{param1}:@var{param2}:...:@var{paramN}
+@var{filter_name}[@{:|=@}@var{param1}:@var{param2}:...:@var{paramN}]
 @end example
 
 @var{filter_name} is the name to the frei0r effect to load. If the
diff --git a/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c b/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
index 235b37a7768c66378ceb38529abe2eac4dc9ca94..03d4f28f2d80ae41084a538f1b272cfb0e85bc41 100644
--- a/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
+++ b/libavfilter/vf_frei0r.c
@@ -277,11 +277,11 @@ static av_cold int frei0r_init(AVFilterContext *ctx,
 static av_cold int filter_init(AVFilterContext *ctx, const char *args, void *opaque)
 {
     Frei0rContext *frei0r = ctx->priv;
-    char dl_name[1024];
+    char dl_name[1024], c;
     *frei0r->params = 0;
 
     if (args)
-        sscanf(args, "%1023[^:]:%255c", dl_name, frei0r->params);
+        sscanf(args, "%1023[^:=]%c%255c", dl_name, &c, frei0r->params);
 
     return frei0r_init(ctx, dl_name, F0R_PLUGIN_TYPE_FILTER);
 }