Calling the film, which is set to have its world premiere on September 3 at the Venice Film Festival, as "incredible" and "cinematic", the "Nomadland" director hopes that people get to experience it in a theatre.
"The White Tiger" also lost out in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay. The film's writer-director Ramin Bahrani was in contention in the category. The winners were Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for "The Father".
"I like that! I like to take credit for all of that (laughs). In our case, it was just something that we decided to do because there were so many different challenges," she said.
"I told my husband that when I turned 65 I was going to change my name to Fern, smoke Lucky Strikes, drink Wild Turkey and hit the road in an RV. So, I got to realise a bit of my fantasy, except that I rolled my own and drank tequila!" she added.
According to a report in Variety, the popular social media site Weibo censors any mentions of "Nomadland", citing violation of "Chinese laws, regulations and policy".
Zhao was up against Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), Regina King (One Night in Miami), David Fincher (Mank), and Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7).
