Thomas Heatherwick's Olympic cauldron and the sweeping velodrome arena will compete against Turner Prize nominee Paul Noble in the visual artscategory.
Last year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded the Best Picture category from five to ten films in the hopes of including more populist hits.
There's no representation from Africa or Asia, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences point out that the purpose of the category is to identify great cinema, not to distribute nominations evenly throughout the world's film-makers.
And the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering whether to nominate Nairobi Half Life for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category -- the first time a Kenyan movie has been considered.