VSCode debugger ignores cwd configuration

Question

I'm trying to debug a Python script I wrote, which loads files relative to its current directory, but no matter what I put in the cwd parameter in the launch.json file, the debugger says the files can't be found.

Running without debugging loads the files properly, but there's a problem elsewhere, which is why I need the debugger to work.

Here's my launch.json file right now:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: Current File",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "justMyCode": true
        }
    ]
}

I've tried setting cwd to the following, as per various answers I found here, on Stack Overflow:

"cwd": ""
"cwd": "."
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"

I've even tried a direct path to the script's folder (there are no spaces in the path, which was another potential problem I saw), which didn't work either.

I've tried restarting VSCode after every change to the cwd parameter, just in case. That didn't work either.