Chastain - who was a grand jury member at the festival which wrapped up on Monday - spoke out at a press conference after the festival's award winners were announced.

"This is the first time I've ever watched 20 films in 10 days, and I love movies," she started. "And the one thing I really took away from this experience is how the world views women... And it was quite disturbing to me, to be honest."

Chastain clarified that there were some exceptions, but went on to say, "for the most part I was surprised with the representation of female characters on screen in these films."

As other members of the jury, including Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, nodded in agreement, Chastain offered her advice on how to fix the problem.

"I do hope that when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the women that I recognise in my day-to-day life. Ones that are proactive, have their own agencies... They don't just react to the men around them, they have their own point of view."

Fellow jury members French actress Agnes Jaoui, Chinese star Fan Bingbing and German director Maren Ade all agreed with Chastain, with Will Smith joking "a couple black folks won't hurt either."

Although this year's festival highlighted new works from female directors including Lynne Ramsay, Agnes Varda and Sofia Coppola, the awards ceremony highlighted its traditional male skew. Coppola, who won the Best Director prize for her film The Beguiled, became only the second woman to snag the title in its 70-year history.

This isn't the first time Chastain has spoken out on gender inequality, previously championing equal pay for women in Hollywood.

As the video of Chastain's speech began to go viral, other female artists voiced their support, including actresses Mindy Kaling and America Ferrera who praised the actress for "speaking her truth".

Ferrara tweeted: "It takes courage to speak truth to power. Thank you for speaking truth and representing the voices of millions!"

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ana DuVernay also backed the artist, tweeting the video of Chastain's speech with the caption, "Say that, Jessica Chastain."