About: Spreadsheet Champions follows six students as they put their Excel-lent skills to the ultimate test in Microsoft’s most prestigious and difficult category. A heartwarming tale of formulas and friendship, Spreadsheet Champions reveals the far-reaching influence of spreadsheets in today’s world and the power of young minds to shape our future. Who will triumph, who will fail, who will EXCEL?
Reaction: I pretty much never knew something like a tournament for using the Excel program ever existed, so watching SPREADSHEET CHAMPIONS, which follows six students from all over the world who can ONLY compete once in their lives in said competition was a real eye-opener. This doc reminded me of SPELLBOUND from many years ago, in that movie celebrated intelligence and preparation, and SPREADSHEET CHAMPIONS works in much of the same way where we get to meet a group of VERY smart kids of various backgrounds and levels of intelligence and it’s so much fun to watch them all tick down to the big event. Bonus points in that filmmaker Kristina Kraskov has created a very well produced and researched documentary that is passionate about its subject, and even has a light cinematic value with its great use of music score, titles on screen and proficient editing. I feel the movie would work on the big screen along with an eventual home video or streaming release, and this MUST be shown in more schools!
This is one of the many movies playing in this year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival. For more information on the festival, point your browser to www.sxsw.com!