diff --git a/libavfilter/vf_mcdeint.c b/libavfilter/vf_mcdeint.c
index 26387b84e7..d53322b40d 100644
--- a/libavfilter/vf_mcdeint.c
+++ b/libavfilter/vf_mcdeint.c
@@ -154,10 +154,7 @@ static av_cold void uninit(AVFilterContext *ctx)
 {
     MCDeintContext *mcdeint = ctx->priv;
 
-    if (mcdeint->enc_ctx) {
-        avcodec_close(mcdeint->enc_ctx);
-        av_freep(&mcdeint->enc_ctx);
-    }
+    avcodec_free_context(&mcdeint->enc_ctx);
 }
 
 static int query_formats(AVFilterContext *ctx)