Both La Strada and Nights of Cabiria won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and were described as having been "inspired" by Masina's "humanity".

Her first experiences acting took place during World War II as part of the theater section of Rome's Gruppi Universitari Fascisti, a state-sponsored but university-student-led arts organization.

She received her first screen credit in Alberto Lattuada's Without Pity (Senza pietà, 1948), which was an adaptation co-written by Fellini, and played opposite John Kitzmiller.

She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of the title role in Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957).

In a 1998 New York Times review, Janet Maslin wrote that there is more "grace and courage" in Masina's performance than "all the fire-breathing blockbusters Hollywood has to offer.

[citation needed] Masina died from lung cancer on 23 March 1994 at age 73, five months after her husband's death on 31 October 1993.

[13] For her funeral, she requested that trumpeter Mauro Maur play "La Strada" by Nino Rota,[14] a poignant leitmotif from the film.

Masina is buried with Fellini and their son, Pierfederico, in a bronze sepulchre sculpted by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the Monumental Cemetery of Rimini.