The Passion of the Christ isn’t set on Easter (which didn’t exist yet of course), nor does the plot involve the holiday per se.
So, for Easter I nominate Hop.
It’s not a movie, but a classic video game - Resident Evil 2 - that takes place on Michaelmas. Yes, Michaelmas (September 29th.) Yes, it IS explicitly referred to in the game, believe it or not. How do I know? Because, many years ago, I was playing it while my friend was watching, and I remember examining a calendar in an office at the police station in the game (expository text would pop up on the screen when you ‘examine’, i.e. use the action button, on objects in the game.) The text read, “September 29th, Michael Festival.” I didn’t know what the hell that meant, and I wondered about it out loud. My friend, who clearly was more informed about liturgical calendar than I, informed me that it was the holiday of Michaelmas, and that the Japanese game developers translated it in a clumsy fashion.
Yes, I know, it’s a game, not a movie. There IS a Resident Evil movie but it does not involve the events of that game.
But I don’t see how it’s a plot point.
So you’re telling me it wasn’t about Jesus’ love for painted eggs and chocolate bunnies?
Marjorie Morningstar, IIRC has a Passover seder, which is not in any way obscure if you are Jewish, but I think a lot of gentiles seeing the film may not have known exactly what was going on. Again, IIRC, as I saw the film about 30 years ago, it’s not really explained what’s happening with the seder. It’s just, “Oh, it’s time for this holiday, let’s do it,” and they do. There’s no stilted dialogue about the origins of Passover, or why a particular custom is done, to fill in the gentile audience.
The Diary of Anne Frank has the family celebrating Chanukah, curiously, in a very Christmassy fashion, which is not what European Jews during WWII (nor American Jews at the same time, for that matter) would have done. It’s also the only really explicit holiday or festival observed in the whole play, which is kind of strange to Jews in the audience. It gives away the American origin of the play, though, and the fact that even though one of the scriptwriters was Jewish, it was intended for a mostly gentile audience. It’s a very goyish play, and the film is even more so.
I’ve not seen Midsommar, bu the title suggest that it might in fact be set at midsummer.
As for Swedish films set at Midsummer Eve, there’s also Smiles of a Summer Night.
And there have been a couple of movies made of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
According to the narration, the Night on Bald Mountain segment of Fantasia takes place on Walpurgisnacht, or May Eve (night of April 30-May 1). The original composition by Mussorgsky was supposed to take place on St. John’s Eve, or the night of 23-24 June, the Christian equivalent of Midsummer Eve.
Of course there’s a wiki page
Coco is set on the Day of the Dead.
I had forgotten about Into the Dark, where each monthly “episode” is really a feature-length direct-to-streaming movie.
Next you’ll be telling me 1776 wasn’t about John Adams’ love for cookouts and fireworks.
It was made for TV, but there’s Jean Shepard’s The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters.
There are also movies made of Twelfth Night, set on the Epiphany.
One I’ve mentioned in another thread.
35% on Rotten Tomatoes! But I got a free pie pan…
In The Day of the Jackal, the plot to assassinate deGaulle is set to go down on 25 August, Liberation Day in France.
After the Thin Man is one of the few movies set at New Year’s Eve.
Another film set during Carnaval in Rio is Black Orpheus.