A new trailer has arrived for Fairyland, a feature adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s memoir about growing up with her father, poet and activist Steve Abbott, in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. The film is directed by Andrew Durham and led by Scoot McNairy as Steve and Emilia Jones as Alysia; Lionsgate is releasing the film in theaters on October 10 in partnership with Willa.
The footage frames the story through everyday moments between father and daughter as much as through the era’s milestones, tracking a household shaped by the gay liberation movement and, later, the AIDS crisis. The supporting cast includes Geena Davis, Maria Bakalova, Cody Fern, Bella Murphy, and singer-actor Adam Lambert, with Nessa Dougherty portraying Alysia in childhood. Producer credits include Sofia Coppola.
Fairyland premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is now positioned for a wider audience with its fall theatrical bow. Durham has described the film as a “parallel coming-of-age” for both Alysia and Steve, an approach that mirrors the memoir’s intimate vantage point; production materials emphasize the film’s period setting and its focus on the private decisions that define a family under public scrutiny.
Marketing for the trailer highlights San Francisco’s cultural landscape as a character in its own right, from bohemian apartments to street corners that mark the community’s changing fortunes. Coverage around the launch notes the project was produced on a tight schedule and leans into small gestures—car rides, kitchen table conversations—to carry the emotional arc rather than sweeping historical set pieces.
Reaction from participants has underscored the story’s personal pull. Lambert, who appears in the film, praised the source memoir’s emotional clarity and its resonance with the city’s history, reflecting the team’s intent to present the material as lived experience rather than museum-piece nostalgia. With the October date set and the trailer in circulation, the campaign now pivots to introducing the father-daughter dynamic to audiences beyond the festival circuit.
