Sorry for the very late answer but I had the same question and I want to share the solution that I found.
Yes, it is possible to pass many of the x264 options through the command-line and API, at least when using libav (I can´t confirm with ffmpeg now). By issuing avconv --help you can find this:
libx264 AVOptions:
-preset <string> E.V.. Set the encoding preset (cf. x264 --fullhelp)
-tune <string> E.V.. Tune the encoding params (cf. x264 --fullhelp)
-profile <string> E.V.. Set profile restrictions (cf. x264 --fullhelp)
-fastfirstpass <int> E.V.. Use fast settings when encoding first pass
-crf <float> E.V.. Select the quality for constant quality mode
-crf_max <float> E.V.. In CRF mode, prevents VBV from lowering quality beyond this point.
-qp <int> E.V.. Constant quantization parameter rate control method
-aq-mode <int> E.V.. AQ method
none E.V..
variance E.V.. Variance AQ (complexity mask)
autovariance E.V.. Auto-variance AQ (experimental)
-aq-strength <float> E.V.. AQ strength. Reduces blocking and blurring in flat and textured areas.
-psy <int> E.V.. Use psychovisual optimizations.
-psy-rd <string> E.V.. Strength of psychovisual optimization, in <psy-rd>:<psy-trellis> format.
-rc-lookahead <int> E.V.. Number of frames to look ahead for frametype and ratecontrol
-weightb <int> E.V.. Weighted prediction for B-frames.
-weightp <int> E.V.. Weighted prediction analysis method.
none E.V..
simple E.V..
smart E.V..
-ssim <int> E.V.. Calculate and print SSIM stats.
-intra-refresh <int> E.V.. Use Periodic Intra Refresh instead of IDR frames.
-b-bias <int> E.V.. Influences how often B-frames are used
-b-pyramid <int> E.V.. Keep some B-frames as references.
none E.V..
strict E.V.. Strictly hierarchical pyramid
normal E.V.. Non-strict (not Blu-ray compatible)
-mixed-refs <int> E.V.. One reference per partition, as opposed to one reference per macroblock
-8x8dct <int> E.V.. High profile 8x8 transform.
-fast-pskip <int> E.V..
-aud <int> E.V.. Use access unit delimiters.
-mbtree <int> E.V.. Use macroblock tree ratecontrol.
-deblock <string> E.V.. Loop filter parameters, in <alpha:beta> form.
-cplxblur <float> E.V.. Reduce fluctuations in QP (before curve compression)
-partitions <string> E.V.. A comma-separated list of partitions to consider. Possible values: p8x8, p4x4, b8x8, i8x8, i4x4, none, all
-direct-pred <int> E.V.. Direct MV prediction mode
none E.V..
spatial E.V..
temporal E.V..
auto E.V..
-slice-max-size <int> E.V.. Limit the size of each slice in bytes
-stats <string> E.V.. Filename for 2 pass stats
When using the AVCodecContext struct, you can also set those options like -rc-lookahead can be set at AVCodecContext::rc_lookahead, but I´m not sure about -preset now.
Hope this can help