The BFI study, which will form part of a comprehensive examination of UK films from 1911 to the present day, found that only four black British actors featured in a list of the 100 most prolific actors in British films.
Almost 60% of British films made in the past 10 years featured no named black characters, and just 13% cast a black actor in a leading role, research by the British Film Institute has found.
A study of 1,172 UK films found that just 15 black actors, five of them women, had played more than one leading role in the past decade.
Oyelowo’s comments echoed those of many other black British actors who have repeatedly questioned the lack of roles in film and TV made in the UK.