diff --git a/Makefile.pre.in b/Makefile.pre.in
index 4fa0337fcc7..3405975e890 100644
--- a/Makefile.pre.in
+++ b/Makefile.pre.in
@@ -1348,7 +1348,7 @@ regen-limited-abi: all
 
 .PHONY: regen-unicodedata
 regen-unicodedata:
-	$(PYTHON_FOR_REGEN) Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py
+	$(PYTHON_FOR_REGEN) $(srcdir)/Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py
 
 
 ############################################################################
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2023-11-15-16-56-20.gh-issue-96954.6FYvKn.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2023-11-15-16-56-20.gh-issue-96954.6FYvKn.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e9a30e5f4bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2023-11-15-16-56-20.gh-issue-96954.6FYvKn.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Make ``make regen-unicodedata`` work for out-of-tree builds of CPython.
diff --git a/Modules/unicodedata_db.h b/Modules/unicodedata_db.h
index ed4b0eea9a6..3e210863448 100644
--- a/Modules/unicodedata_db.h
+++ b/Modules/unicodedata_db.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* this file was generated by Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
+/* this file was generated by ./Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
 
 #define UNIDATA_VERSION "15.1.0"
 /* a list of unique database records */
diff --git a/Modules/unicodename_db.h b/Modules/unicodename_db.h
index a39dcccd408..4fe60ad5ed4 100644
--- a/Modules/unicodename_db.h
+++ b/Modules/unicodename_db.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* this file was generated by Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
+/* this file was generated by ./Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
 
 #define NAME_MAXLEN 256
 
diff --git a/Objects/unicodetype_db.h b/Objects/unicodetype_db.h
index 39a567dc46e..e6dbeffbe2a 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodetype_db.h
+++ b/Objects/unicodetype_db.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* this file was generated by Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
+/* this file was generated by ./Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py 3.3 */
 
 /* a list of unique character type descriptors */
 const _PyUnicode_TypeRecord _PyUnicode_TypeRecords[] = {