Russell is being punished for being a sexy brute, and trying to read that damn poem.
Also, the Nash-was-anti-semitic mud siphoned off some votes - I'm sure folks were more willing to to let it affect the actor Oscar instead of the director oscar.
He gave the most intense, riveting performance I've ever seen. He deserved the Oscar.
Hollyweird sympathizes with a mentally ill woman who drowned her five little children, but they will forever hold a grudge against a mentally ill man who had moments of anti-Semitic rants without hurting anyone.