SXSW '25: Spreadsheet Champions Just Barely Comes Up Short

Chances are good that you've never heard of the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship. I certainly hadn't—my experience with Excel largely involves using it in the least efficient way possible (just ask EIC Alix or Managing Editor remus how I tallied up the Hyperreal Best of 2023 votes). But one odd quirk of this world that I adore is that there is an award for being the best at something for everything. So why not spreadsheets? Spreadsheet Champions, which had its World Premiere at SXSW in 2025, follows six students, each the national champion of their country's Microsoft Office Specialist Championship, as they compete for the once-in-a-lifetime (literally, according to the rules) opportunity to become the Excel world champion. It's a quirky hook that allows director Kristina Kraskov and her crew plenty of angles with which to approach the contest. There's a bit of a sports movie in Champions, a bit of a game show angle as you inevitably root for one (or all) of the six student subjects to claim the gold… which is obviously impossible.

Spreadsheet Champions, Mason in the exam. Credit: GoodThing Productions & Peculiar Pictures

Like my favorite documentary The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young, this is partly a chronicle of failure. Every step of the way, the organizers emphasize the test's difficulty; the students' teachers praise their students as the most brilliant children they've ever taught, even as they doubt that their exceptional ability will stand out in an entire auditorium full of uniquely exceptional children. The Cameroonian champion doesn't even have a laptop to practice with. The Guadalupan champion feels the pressure of representing women in STEM, the Australian champ doesn't seem to take the test seriously, and so on.

These are brilliant, hard-working kids used to success and the film dangles the almost-guaranteed chance of failure in front of them throughout. Which is partly the point. It's the challenge that makes it worthwhile. If it was easy, it wouldn't matter. The film is at its strongest when it focuses on that theme of hardwon triumph—whatever that might actually mean—against impossible odds. But when the film drifts in focus, it loses touch with its most compelling attribute: the subjects. Each competitor is so quirky and interesting, and their disparate experiences make for a fascinating spread of what type of person is interested in, and can actually excel at, using spreadsheets. Unfortunately, following six competitors, their family and friends, two contest organizers (both wildly compelling in their own rights), and having to explain the competition to the uninitiated is a lot to fit into an 86 minute film.

It's rare for me to watch television and even rarer for me to prefer the medium, but with so many compelling interview subjects and the time needed to explain the contest clearly enough to get the audience's attention, it sometimes feels that this subject would've been better explored in a miniseries. That feeling is only exacerbated by Kraskov's decision to ratchet up the tension in the climax with onscreen graphics, mid-test footage of kids struggling under the pressure, and a drawn-out awards ceremony. It is undeniably compelling to watch with bated breath to see which kid will win and which kids are going to go home without that validation, but that intrigue comes at the expense of more subtle themes and angles to the contest and the kids.

The film seems scattered at times, sometimes confident enough to follow a participant with witty sound bites for days, sometimes interrupting these personality-driven scenes to breathlessly, and unnecessarily justify the subject matter. It's not enough for the competition to be a meaningful accomplishment in these students' lives or a way to assure educational opportunities for themselves in the future—talking heads repeatedly emphasize that spreadsheets are the most important tool in human history; that the data literacy the students gain from practicing for the test will change the future. One woman whose qualifications remain unclear throughout talks about how these skills might be beneficial in some sort of hypothetical AI superfuture. It's a distraction, ultimately, from the personal nature of the competitors' experiences and drives. Does it especially matter if these kids are going to change the world in the future so long as their own world is changed through these experiences?

However, despite the occasional lapse in focus, Spreadsheet Champions remains a fascinating look at an under-discussed subculture. It's an eminently watchable story with some of the strangest and most charming spreadsheet nerds you've ever met. I might not believe that these kids and their quirky hobby will change the world, but I like watching them compete to be the best anyway.

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