diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/orc.pyx b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/orc.pyx
index 83c7f9c8635..70e293eb0e2 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/orc.pyx
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/orc.pyx
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ from cudf._lib.cpp.io.types cimport (
 )
 from cudf._lib.cpp.table.table_view cimport table_view
 from cudf._lib.cpp.types cimport data_type, size_type, type_id
+from cudf._lib.io.datasource cimport NativeFileDatasource
 from cudf._lib.io.utils cimport (
     make_sink_info,
     make_source_info,
@@ -53,6 +54,8 @@ from cudf._lib.utils cimport (
     table_view_from_table,
 )
 
+from pyarrow.lib import NativeFile
+
 from cudf._lib.utils import _index_level_name, generate_pandas_metadata
 from cudf.api.types import is_list_dtype, is_struct_dtype
 
@@ -66,6 +69,10 @@ cpdef read_raw_orc_statistics(filepath_or_buffer):
     cudf.io.orc.read_orc_statistics
     """
 
+    # Handle NativeFile input
+    if isinstance(filepath_or_buffer, NativeFile):
+        filepath_or_buffer = NativeFileDatasource(filepath_or_buffer)
+
     cdef raw_orc_statistics raw = (
         libcudf_read_raw_orc_statistics(make_source_info([filepath_or_buffer]))
     )
@@ -209,6 +216,9 @@ cdef orc_reader_options make_orc_reader_options(
     object decimal_cols_as_float
 ) except*:
 
+    for i, datasource in enumerate(filepaths_or_buffers):
+        if isinstance(datasource, NativeFile):
+            filepaths_or_buffers[i] = NativeFileDatasource(datasource)
     cdef vector[string] c_column_names
     cdef vector[vector[size_type]] strps = stripes
     c_column_names.reserve(len(column_names))
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/io/orc.py b/python/cudf/cudf/io/orc.py
index 3aa672223c9..e1e38820d47 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/io/orc.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/io/orc.py
@@ -287,6 +287,7 @@ def read_orc(
     use_index=True,
     decimal_cols_as_float=None,
     timestamp_type=None,
+    use_python_file_object=True,
     **kwargs,
 ):
     """{docstring}"""
@@ -321,7 +322,10 @@ def read_orc(
             source = fs.sep.join([source, "*.orc"])
 
         tmp_source, compression = ioutils.get_filepath_or_buffer(
-            path_or_data=source, compression=None, **kwargs,
+            path_or_data=source,
+            compression=None,
+            use_python_file_object=use_python_file_object,
+            **kwargs,
         )
         if compression is not None:
             raise ValueError(
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_s3.py b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_s3.py
index added0887f1..2d7907a43b8 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_s3.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_s3.py
@@ -326,7 +326,9 @@ def test_read_json(s3_base, s3so):
     assert_eq(expect, got)
 
 
-def test_read_orc(s3_base, s3so, datadir):
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("use_python_file_object", [False, True])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("columns", [None, ["string1"]])
+def test_read_orc(s3_base, s3so, datadir, use_python_file_object, columns):
     source_file = str(datadir / "orc" / "TestOrcFile.testSnappy.orc")
     fname = "test_orc_reader.orc"
     bname = "orc"
@@ -337,9 +339,36 @@ def test_read_orc(s3_base, s3so, datadir):
 
     with s3_context(s3_base=s3_base, bucket=bname, files={fname: buffer}):
         got = cudf.read_orc(
-            "s3://{}/{}".format(bname, fname), storage_options=s3so
+            "s3://{}/{}".format(bname, fname),
+            columns=columns,
+            storage_options=s3so,
+            use_python_file_object=use_python_file_object,
         )
 
+    if columns:
+        expect = expect[columns]
+    assert_eq(expect, got)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("columns", [None, ["string1"]])
+def test_read_orc_arrow_nativefile(s3_base, s3so, datadir, columns):
+    source_file = str(datadir / "orc" / "TestOrcFile.testSnappy.orc")
+    fname = "test_orc_reader.orc"
+    bname = "orc"
+    expect = pa.orc.ORCFile(source_file).read().to_pandas()
+
+    with open(source_file, "rb") as f:
+        buffer = f.read()
+
+    with s3_context(s3_base=s3_base, bucket=bname, files={fname: buffer}):
+        fs = pa_fs.S3FileSystem(
+            endpoint_override=s3so["client_kwargs"]["endpoint_url"],
+        )
+        with fs.open_input_file("{}/{}".format(bname, fname)) as fil:
+            got = cudf.read_orc(fil, columns=columns)
+
+    if columns:
+        expect = expect[columns]
     assert_eq(expect, got)
 
 
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/utils/ioutils.py b/python/cudf/cudf/utils/ioutils.py
index 02fcead42d6..628363ae6d3 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/utils/ioutils.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/utils/ioutils.py
@@ -357,6 +357,10 @@
 decimal_cols_as_float: list, default None
     If specified, names of the columns that should be converted from
     Decimal to Float64 in the resulting dataframe.
+use_python_file_object : boolean, default True
+    If True, Arrow-backed PythonFile objects will be used in place of fsspec
+    AbstractBufferedFile objects at IO time. This option is likely to improve
+    performance when making small reads from larger ORC files.
 kwargs are passed to the engine
 
 Returns