The grace that the filmmakers of La La Land showed to those of Moonlight – in the midst of the biggest gut-punching “psyche” job to ever play out on a global stage – didn’t end on Oscar night.

Every year post-Oscars, Variety (the legendary Hollywood trade publication) puts the Academy Award winner for Best Director on its cover. This year, that honor goes to Damien Chazelle, who won for helming La La Land. And yet when the edition debuted, director Barry Jenkins – whose Moonlight had just beat La La Land for Best Picture in an historic upset – was sharing the cover with Chazelle.

The reason: because Chazelle had asked Variety – and not the other way around – if Jenkins could join him, for the cover and the interview.

As Variety put it:

• The high stakes and cutthroat tactics enlisted during Hollywood’s annual award season have long rivaled those of hard-fought political campaigns. But this year’s race showed the entertainment community at its absolute best. This was not a case of winner-take-all, but rather — as our cover story hopefully and joyfully exemplifies — proof that contenders share similar dreams, struggles, and frailties, and in fact can show respect and a generosity of spirit toward one another, whether they win or lose.

To read the entire joint interview conducted by Kristopher Tapley, Variety’s Oscar guru and host of their Oscar podcast Playback, click here. The feature includes a pictorial essay of these two filmmakers, who were at the top of the 2016 Academy Award winning class. That photo essay is teased here in this behind-the-scenes video: