Early in her career she assisted editor Franco Arcalli on two of Bertolucci's films, Last Tango in Paris (1972) and 1900 (1976).
Arcalli was the "supervising editor" on a 1977 film, Berlinguer, I Love You, that was one of Cristiani's first feature editing credits; the film was directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci - Bernardo's brother.
Arcalli was to have edited Bernardo Bertolucci's next film, La Luna (1979), but he died during production; Cristiani, who was assisting, then took over as editor.
[1] Cristiani edited Bernardo Bertolucci's 1982 film Tragedy of a Ridulous Man.
She won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for The Last Emperor (1987), which won a total of 9 Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director (for Bertolucci)) as well as numerous other honors.