The South Korean’s 2011 feature Planet of Snail won multiple international awards, including International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam’s prize for best feature-length documentary and Silverdocs' Sterling Award for best world feature documentary.

It was also nominated for the Muhr AsiaAfrica Award for best documentary at the 2011 Dubai International Film Festival.

Gary Byung-Seok Kam is producing the Pyeongchang 2018 official film, while Kim Ok-Young is serving as executive producer.

Filming started in December with a crew of seven people and is continuing during the Games, which are scheduled to conclude on February 25. 

The film has been following several athletes from diverse backgrounds as they navigate Pyeongchang 2018, preparing themselves physically and mentally to take on the world's leading athletes and represent their home countries to the best of their ability.

It is claimed each story explores the personal hardships and borders of nationality, race, gender, religion and territory they have overcome to excel, and ultimately succeed, when faced with one of the greatest privileges and daunting challenges recognised throughout the world - the Olympic Games.

"It is a great honour to work on a film which will become part of the filmic legacy of the Olympic Movement," Yi said.

"Through the powerful stories of the athletes, the film explores an aspiration that we all share, to cross beyond the reality and to move forward to a better future."

Francis Gabet, director of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, added: "We are delighted to have such a talented director on board.

"His poetic sensibility immediately spoke to us as we aim for a film that offers a different, artistic perspective of the Games."

Yi drew inspiration for the film from a Korean poem written by Min-Bok Ham, Flower, which expresses the idea that hope comes from all borders, no matter what kind.

"I didn't want to make a typical sports film," Yi said.

"In the middle of research, we found this poem.

"Flowers bloom on every border' - this line inspired us instantly and provided a strong perspective.

"Crossing beyond', the film's working title, is about the value of sports and the Olympics.

"It is rather easy to focus on the competition and the winnings, but I believe there is something more than that in the Games."

The film is due to be completed by the end of this year.

Since the early 20th century, films have been created for every edition of the Olympic Games.

Throughout the decades, accomplished international filmmakers - including Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Leni Riefenstahl and Carlos Saura - have created cinema as part of the Olympic Games' cultural legacy.

In 1936, Germany’s Riefenstahl shot her opening sequences among the columns of the historic Greek town of Delphi, where the Pyeongchang 2018 Torch stopped in October.

She did so because conditions at the actual lighting in Olympia had not yielded the images she wanted for her classic film of the Olympic Games in Berlin.

The Olympic film collection is comprised of more than 50 feature-length films offering a cinematic window onto defining moments in the history of the modern Games.

After an extensive high-quality restoration project, the Olympic film collection today also includes more than 40 feature-length and 60 short films in their original format and language.