diff --git a/django/forms/fields.py b/django/forms/fields.py
index 9c4084450aec6..bd4f3d4a8052c 100644
--- a/django/forms/fields.py
+++ b/django/forms/fields.py
@@ -829,9 +829,15 @@ def __init__(self, path, match=None, recursive=False, required=True,
         super(FilePathField, self).__init__(choices=(), required=required,
             widget=widget, label=label, initial=initial, help_text=help_text,
             *args, **kwargs)
-        self.choices = []
+            
+        if self.required:
+            self.choices = []
+        else:
+            self.choices = [("", "---------")]
+
         if self.match is not None:
             self.match_re = re.compile(self.match)
+
         if recursive:
             for root, dirs, files in os.walk(self.path):
                 for f in files:
@@ -846,6 +852,7 @@ def __init__(self, path, match=None, recursive=False, required=True,
                         self.choices.append((full_file, f))
             except OSError:
                 pass
+
         self.widget.choices = self.choices
 
 class SplitDateTimeField(MultiValueField):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/model_forms_regress/models.py b/tests/regressiontests/model_forms_regress/models.py
index dedbed717923a..fc587202d647a 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/model_forms_regress/models.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/model_forms_regress/models.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 from django.db import models
 from django import forms
 
@@ -12,6 +13,9 @@ def __unicode__(self):
     class Meta:
         unique_together = (('left', 'middle'), ('middle', 'right'))
 
+class FilePathModel(models.Model):
+    path = models.FilePathField(path=os.path.dirname(__file__), match=".*\.py$", blank=True)
+
 __test__ = {'API_TESTS': """
 When the same field is involved in multiple unique_together constraints, we
 need to make sure we don't remove the data for it before doing all the
@@ -28,5 +32,14 @@ class Meta:
 >>> form = TripleForm({'left': '1', 'middle': '3', 'right': '1'})
 >>> form.is_valid()
 True
+
+# Regression test for #8842: FilePathField(blank=True)
+>>> class FPForm(forms.ModelForm):
+...     class Meta:
+...         model = FilePathModel
+
+>>> form = FPForm()
+>>> [c[1] for c in form['path'].field.choices]
+['---------', '__init__.py', 'models.py']
 """}