BAFTA slam YouTube prankster who crashed stage during Oppenheimer speech

19 February 2024, 13:00

Andrew Scott, Bradley Cooper and Naomi Campbell take to the BAFTAs red carpet

By Katie Louise Smith

The "social media prankster" who ran onto the stage alongside Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and Cillian Murphy. Read their response here.

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BAFTA has slammed the YouTuber and social media prankster who invaded the stage as Oppenheimer won Best Film at last night's ceremony (Feb 18).

If you tuned in to watch the BAFTAs last night, you might have seen an unknown man get on stage with Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Cillian Murphy and Charles Roven as they accepted the biggest prize of the night.

While BAFTA did not name the prankster, a YouTuber named Lizwani has taken to social media to say that it was him.

The incident seemed to have gone completely unnoticed at first, as he ran to the stage behind the Oppenheimer team and stood next to Cillian Murphy as Emma Thomas gave the acceptance speech. No one in the audience appeared to look concerned.

Now, BAFTA have confirmed that they are taking the situation very seriously. Read the full statement below.

Who is the 'social media prankster' who crashed the stage at the BAFTAs?

YouTube prankster storms stage during Oppenheimer BAFTA win. Picture: Kate Green/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA, BAFTA via YouTube

During the ceremony, the Oppenheimer team were sat together on one side of the auditorium, and got up as a group to accept their award for Best Film.

The prankster then emerged from the other side of the room, ran up on stage as producer Emma Thomas encouraged the rest of the group to join them on stage, saying "Where are you? Come on, all of you!".

Presumably, the timing of that comment paired with the appearance of the prankster made it look like he had accepted the invitation to join the celebration with them.

He then stood directly behind Emma as she gave the acceptance speech. No one else within the camera shot presented in the broadcast appeared to event notice he was there.

Watch the moment it happened below.

Oppenheimer wins Best Film BAFTA! 👏 | BAFTA Film Awards 2024- BBC

In a statement to Variety, BAFTA have now slammed the YouTuber and will not be speaking further on the matter in order to not give him any publicity.

"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," a BAFTA spokesperson told the outlet.

According to the Variety report, BAFTA then indicated that he was apprehended by security after leaving the stage with the Oppenheimer team. It's unclear how he gained access into the event.

People on social media later spotted that YouTuber Lizwani shared a screenshot of himself on stage on his Instagram Stories, and said that he had been apprehended by police following the stage invasion.

Posting a picture of himself on a bike after the ceremony, he wrote: "The police took bare of my footage. But I still have a lot left. I had to stand 10 toes."

In another story, he teases a full video of his prank, saying: "2nd TV appearance. Video out soon."

Lizwani, who only has 8k followers on YouTube, hasn’t posted his version of events yet but it will undoubtedly raise questions about the security of these events going forward. He previously snuck into the 2022 BRIT Awards.