YouTuber gatecrashes Christopher Nolan’s BAFTA speech and no one notices

A YouTuber gatecrashed the main stage at the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night during the final speech of the evening – and nobody noticed.

• READ MORE: ‘Oppenheimer’ review: Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing biopic hits like a bomb to the brain

After Oppenheimer was announced as the winner of the Best Film award, its director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and lead actor Cillian Murphy all took to the stage to accept the prize. But as seen on the BBC broadcast of the show, there was another man there who had no connection to the film at all.

It transpired that the man in question was the YouTuber Lizwani, who has previously gatecrashed other ceremonies, including the BRIT Awards, the FIFA Ballon D’Or and the British Fashion Awards.

BAFTA responded to the incident in a statement: “A social media prankster was removed by security last night after joining the winners of the final award on stage – we are taking this very seriously, and don’t wish to grant him any publicity by commenting further.”

The imposter stood silently behind Thomas as she gave her speech, and then left the stage with the group, at which point BAFTA say he was detained by security. At time of writing, Lizwani has not posted any footage from the show on his channel.

Oppenheimer was the biggest winner of the night at the BAFTAs, winning a total of seven, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Murphy. Poor Things came in second, with a total of five wins, and The Zone of Interest won three.

Nolan used his Best Director acceptance speech to acknowledge the people who have fought for nuclear disarmament. “I do just want to say, our film ends on what I think is a dramatically necessary note of despair,” he said. “But in the real world there are all kinds of individuals and organisations who have fought long and hard to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world.”

“Since its peak in 1967, they’ve done it by almost 90%. Of late, that’s gone the wrong way. And so, in accepting this, I do just want to acknowledge their efforts and point out that they show the necessity and potential of efforts for peace.”

Sophie Ellis-Bextor also performed her resurgent hit ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ at the ceremony, after its major viral revival in recent months due to its inclusion in the memorable final scene in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn.

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