A robotic vacuum working at a pandemic hospital quits its job. Celestial beings fall to Earth, unbalancing the world order. A futuristic society bans touching, leading people to seek out a hotel where anything you want is at the touch of a fingertip.

These are just a few of the stories that will be related this Sunday at the Richmond Animation Festival. Now in its second year, the annual festival will screen a series of animation shorts at the Byrd Theatre before guest speaker Robert Beatty takes the stage.

“These animations that we’re playing, they’re not for kids. They are unusual narratives, semi-experimental. They’re funny,” explains Dash Shaw, a cartoonist, animator and the festival’s co-creator. “These cartoons are a spectacle. They are exciting and unusual to look at. This is not a snooze fest — this is a light show.”

The idea for an animation festival came about when Jordan Bruner, who holds a bachelor’s in kinetic imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University, moved back to Richmond from New York City with her husband Zack Williams in 2019. Both artists and animators, Bruner and Williams wanted to create an animation festival in Richmond, but their plans were put on hold by the pandemic.

Roughly 300 attended last year’s event, which included screenings of animation shorts and Shaw’s animated feature “Cryptozoo.” That film is about a hunt for cryptids, creatures whose existence is disputed by science, such as griffins or chupacabras. Boasting a voice cast that includes Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Angeliki Papoulia, Zoe Kazan, Peter Stormare and Grace Zabriskie, the film won the Next Innovator Award at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival; it was released by Magnolia Pictures in 2021.

This year’s festival will include screenings of: “Attila,” directed by Bruce Bickford; “Donks,” directed by Felix Colgrave; “La Chute,” directed by Boris Labbé; “The Moth.” directed by Allison Schulnik; “Terra Incognita,” directed by Pernille Kjaer and Adrian Dexter; “Matta and Matto,” directed by Bianca Caderas and Kerstin Zemp; “Now That I’m Thinking,” directed by David Gelfand; “Tennis, Oranges” directed Sean Pecknold; “The Miracle,” directed by Nienke Deutz; and “The Landscape,” directed by Rachel Maves.

“We’ve got a great selection of short, animated films from all over the world. We’ve got a broad range of techniques and styles of storytelling. The variety of mediums is really exciting,” Bruner says. “If you’re a fan of experimental animation and want to see some really cool animated films that you can’t see anywhere else, come hang out and meet some other animation fans.”

After the shorts, animator and musician Robert Beatty will speak, followed by a question-and-answer session. Based out of Lexington, Kentucky, Beatty designed the cover for Tame Impala’s 2015 album “Currents” among other projects.

“He’s done many album covers and played in many noise bands, but he also has a practice of video art that blurs the boundaries between design and animation,” Shaw says. “They’re a little hard to pin down, which is something that I like about them.”

The event at the Byrd will be followed by an afterparty on New York Deli’s rooftop where animation fans can mingle with animators. Access to the afterparty is included with the price of admission to the festival.

“This is a great opportunity to see what’s going on in this world of animation and see it on the beautiful, big Byrd screen and not on your YouTube browser window,” Shaw says. “Let’s give these films a good platform.”

The Richmond Animation Festival will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 28 at the Byrd Theatre, 2908 W. Cary St. Tickets are $10.