An event at the China National Film Museum marks the 120th anniversary of Chinese cinema and promotes holiday-season releases. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Spring Festival holiday, now the country's most lucrative box-office season, was once considered a cinematic dead zone.

In the early 1990s, it was common for theaters to shut down during the first few days of the Chinese New Year. That convention was overturned in 1995 with the release of action giant Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx, which became a hit during the holiday, pioneering the concept of hesuidang — a term that has since expanded to encompass the entire New Year and Spring Festival period.

This piece of cinema history was recently revisited at an event hosted by the China Film Administration and organized by the China Movie Channel at the China National Film Museum. The gathering marked the 120th anniversary of Chinese cinema, while promoting newly released and upcoming titles vying for the holiday audience.

Spanish director Pablo Berger, whose award-winning film Robot Dreams will be re-screened in domestic theaters, attends the event. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chan, 71, will return to the festival market in Unexpected Family, an emotional drama in which he plays a man with Alzheimer's disease, eschewing his trademark stunts. The film opens on Jan 1.

Another highly anticipated release is Back to the Past, a continuation of the popular TV series A Step into the Past (2001), which fictionalizes a 21st-century agent who inadvertently travels to the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and aids a captive prince's rise to power. The movie opens on Dec 31.

Also premiering on New Year's Eve is director Shen Ao's Escape from the Outland, about Chinese hostages escaping terrorists in a war-torn North African country. Other highlighted films include the fantasy romance Measure in Love and the crime thriller The Fire Raven.

Diehard fans of animation also have reason to celebrate with the re-screening of Spanish director Pablo Berger's award-winning Robot Dreams, a poignant and surreal story of friendship and isolation between a dog and a robot. Berger attended the promotional event, expressing his love for China, saying, "I just want to say — beautiful country, beautiful audience, and amazing cinema."