Ainara Vera studied documentary filmmaking at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Her first short documentary, Sertres (2014), had its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and won the Navarre Young Artist award. She co-directed the film Demonstration (2013) with thirty-two other students and the Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky, with whom she worked as first assistant director and editor on Sports Kids: Varicella (2015), Aquarela (2018) and Gunda (2020). Polaris (2022), for which Vera received support from Chicken and Eggs Pictures, marks her featurelength film directorial debut.