Tina Kakadelis
For most, a spreadsheet is a necessary evil of the job. It’s an easy way to create an inventory or automate computations with wide-reaching uses in almost every industry on earth. For the young people at the center of Spreadsheet Champions, a spreadsheet is more than you or I can fathom. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, TX, and introduced its audience to another side of the computer application. Every year, young people aged 13 to 22 from around the world convene for the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in Orlando, FL. Spreadsheet Champions is based on a program made of ones and zeros, but the documentary is a heartfelt look at the crossroads of technology and humanity.
Spreadsheet Champions divides its focus among six competitors in the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship. In order to qualify for the event, students must win their country’s national championship. The documentary focuses solely on the Excel portion of the event, but there are also competitions for Word and PowerPoint. Of the roughly 100 finalists, the documentary team selected Mason (15) from the U.S., Alkmini (20) from Greece, Braydon (16) from Australia, Nam (22) from Vietnam, Carmina (16) from Guatemala, and De La Paix (19) from Cameroon. After winning a country’s national title, individuals can only compete once in the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship. The documentary follows these students in the weeks that lead up to this massive moment in their lives.
It’s easy to write off Excel skills as something that serves little purpose, but that’s because the average spreadsheet user is only working with about 15% of the program’s abilities. These competitors understand somewhere closer to 70% of what Excel can do. This championship may seem odd, but the winners usually walk out of there with job prospects in a multitude of fields. Businesses focused on everything from AI training to biomedicine to inventory management to the space program all need someone who understands the true depth of Excel. The film ends with the statement “Our Future Needs Champions.” Who would’ve known that the answer to many of life’s woes could be found in a spreadsheet?
Bingxuan Xie is the mastermind behind the three-part Excel test meant to push these kids to their breaking points. The heart of this challenge is data literacy skills, something we desperately need as a society. We need to be able to look at numbers, understand how they can be manipulated, and see the truth for ourselves. It’s a dying skill, yet one these kids clearly have, and it provides a sense of hope for our future. Even though their actions at the championship have direct ramifications, these young people want to live in the moment. It’s the first trip to the United States for many of them, and their first look at a life beyond their hometowns. All the while, though, they hold onto the pride of where they came from.
Spreadsheet Champions introduces the audience to all these kids while they’re in their cities to really illustrate the varied roads they took to make it to Orlando. De La Paix from Cameroon doesn’t have a laptop or Wi-Fi, so he must rely on his friends and his school. Even then, he doesn’t have the ability to practice as much as someone like Mason, who has a full gaming set-up in his bedroom. In the same way that sports allows people from around the world to transcend the boundaries of country borders, so does Excel.
“I can go to sleep peacefully now and listen to One Direction,” says Carmina as she exits the test room. At the end of the day, as smart and as focused on the future as these subjects are, they’re still kids. They’re still growing into themselves, learning about who they are as people, and planning for a future they don’t fully comprehend. Spreadsheet Champions honors both sides of them in such a special way. They’re simultaneously the smartest kids in the room and the ones with the most to learn. There are highs and lows that come with the competition, as not everyone can walk out of Orlando a winner. What lasts, though, are the friendships and the sense of pride that comes from making it that far. Spreadsheet Champions proves that while there’s no formula for computing friendship, there is potential for camaraderie in every situation.
