diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e2f411e..bf368bd 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Topic :: Documentation :: Sphinx",
 ]
 dependencies = [
-    "sphinx>=5.1.0,<9.0.0",
+    "sphinx>=5.1.0",
     "docutils>=0.19",  # for get_default_settings()
 ]
 dynamic = ["version"]
diff --git a/sphinxarg/ext.py b/sphinxarg/ext.py
index 847a187..f796b17 100644
--- a/sphinxarg/ext.py
+++ b/sphinxarg/ext.py
@@ -14,12 +14,17 @@
 from docutils.statemachine import StringList
 from sphinx.domains import Domain, Index, IndexEntry
 from sphinx.errors import ExtensionError
-from sphinx.ext.autodoc import mock
 from sphinx.roles import XRefRole
 from sphinx.util import logging
 from sphinx.util.docutils import SphinxDirective, new_document
 from sphinx.util.nodes import make_id, make_refnode, nested_parse_with_titles
 
+try:
+    from sphinx.ext.autodoc.mock import mock
+except ImportError:
+    from sphinx.ext.autodoc import mock
+    # A persistent bug in sphinx / autodoc causes problems during importing (#82)
+
 from sphinxarg import __version__
 from sphinxarg.parser import parse_parser, parser_navigate
 from sphinxarg.utils import command_pos_args, target_to_anchor_id