'The Rocket,' 'The Kill Team,' 'Bridegroom' Take Top Honors At Tribeca Film Festival

The Rocket was voted best narrative film, while The Kill Team was voted best documentary film by the jurors at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. The Rocket was also voted best narrative film in the Heineken Audience Awards, while Bridegroom took home the award for best documentary.

Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket, set in Laos, follows the young Aholo (Sitthiphon Dismoe), who searches for a way to regain his family's trust after he is blamed for their bad luck. In an attempt to prove himself, he painstakingly labors to build a rocket in the hopes of winning the lucrative prize at the Rocket Festival. Dismoe, 10, won best actor at the festival for his inspiring performance.

The Kill Team, directed by Dan Krauss, took a look inside the U.S. platoon that included soldier Adam Winfield, which was accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport. The documentary depicts Winfield as a would-be whistleblower who gets caught up in the illegal activities right before he's about to report the heinous acts committed by the other members of his platoon. "Sometimes in the blink of an eye, very young men and women are being asked to make decisions that have no clear path to a positive conclusion and, in the worse case, carry the most severe consequences for human life," Krauss told TakePart in reference to the film's subject matter.

Bridegroom, which won the Heineken Audience Award for best documentary, was Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's examination of gay rights and marriage equality. The documentary took a look at the life of same-sex couple Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Bridegroom. When Bridegroom tragically died before the pair could be married in California, Crone was forbidden by his late partner's family from attending the funeral.

The three winning films were screened on Sunday to culminate the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.