diff --git a/bob/bio/base/database/filelist/models.py b/bob/bio/base/database/filelist/models.py
index f5507f877796c63efe2cee143304bade57ed9df0..a6317136dca29f70d9bec0dd41c7891ed37ab0ff 100644
--- a/bob/bio/base/database/filelist/models.py
+++ b/bob/bio/base/database/filelist/models.py
@@ -87,6 +87,8 @@ class ListReader(object):
             raise RuntimeError('File %s does not exist.' % (list_file,))
         try:
             for line in fileinput.input(list_file):
+                if line.strip().startswith('#'):
+                    continue
                 parsed_line = re.findall('[\w/(-.)]+', line)
                 if len(parsed_line):
                     # perform some sanity checks
diff --git a/bob/bio/base/test/data/example_filelist2/dev/for_models.lst b/bob/bio/base/test/data/example_filelist2/dev/for_models.lst
index 7bdbf751bd8c6f432f780199a77a8d60a45fa388..c6618bb72f48eebe17a5be41c74bbc1a626e2ffd 100644
--- a/bob/bio/base/test/data/example_filelist2/dev/for_models.lst
+++ b/bob/bio/base/test/data/example_filelist2/dev/for_models.lst
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# Model samples
+#Modelsamples
+#data/model3_session1_sample1 3 3
 data/model3_session1_sample1 3 3
 data/model3_session1_sample2 3 3
 data/model3_session1_sample3 3 3
diff --git a/doc/filelist-guide.rst b/doc/filelist-guide.rst
index 547ac79767b12d6fafe8f64333a4675056bc6144..969e812f4ab3ab4f5f28935bfb9d5e6e9e5ceeec 100644
--- a/doc/filelist-guide.rst
+++ b/doc/filelist-guide.rst
@@ -124,6 +124,8 @@ The following list files need to be created:
       filename client_id
 
 
+Please note that in all files, the lines starting with any number of white
+space and ``#`` will be ignored.
 
 
 Protocols and File Lists