Don't forget that the Academy doesn't choose the films that each country will submit.  If Antonioni has never been nominated, part of the reason would be that Italy probably never submitted any of his films for consideration.  If spain had submitted Talk To Her this year, they would have won easily over Nowhere In Africa, but instead they thought Americans wouldn't go for a movie that "sympathized" with a rapist and so chose something else that didn't even get nominated.