Stephanie Guest and Shania Riethmann are first-year science communication students.
Their short film, Guardian of the Sea Lions, has been selected for the largest wildlife film festival in the southern hemisphere, the Wild Earth Oceania inaugural film festival in Sydney, which features ambassadors such as primatologist Jane Goodall.
Ms Guest said the accolade was bittersweet, because the science communication department was one of those affected by the university’s "management of change" processes.
"I love what we have been able to do, but I’m worried that others won’t get the opportunity," she said.
The pair were "over the moon" about being selected for the Sydney festival, Ms Guest said.
"Shania and myself are both very passionate about nature, and sea lions are very charismatic animals, so we wanted to get a unique take on them."
The New Zealand Sea Lion Trust put the pair in touch with 83-year-old Janet Ledingham, who has been studying and campaigning for sea lions for nearly a decade, she said.
"Janet was just so passionate about them.
"We really appreciated that our first discussions with Janet and the trust were about ethics.
"We wanted to show the sea lions and how they live, but we didn’t want any harm to come to them."
The Department of Conservation classifies sea lions as "nationally vulnerable".
Ms Guest and Ms Riethmann spent more than a week filming both Janet and the sea lion pups.
"This was our first attempt at a film.
"We learned everything on the job, but it was so easy to get carried away with everyone’s enthusiasm for these animals."
One of the big challenges was reducing hours of footage down to three minutes of film, Ms Guest said.
"We wanted to make sure every second of it was the highest quality," she said.
Ms Guest came to Dunedin from South Africa to pursue science communication studies.
"Making films about nature is something I’ve always wanted to do," she said.
The department had given the pair some funding towards attending the festival, but they were in the process of seeking more to get over there, Ms Guest said.
Sciences pro-vice chancellor Prof Richard Barker recently confirmed a proposal to slash the science communication programme by two-thirds.
There are 6.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the department.
A 0.5 FTE fixed-term doctoral position would end at the expiry of the current contract; one teaching fellow position (1.0 FTE) would be disestablished; and three FTE academic positions would be disestablished.
The Wild Earth Oceania inaugural wildlife film festival takes place from September 8 to 20 in Sydney.
