Cristian Emilian Puiu was born to Iuliana and Emilian Puiu in Bucharest, Romania. Puiu's first interest in art was painting. In 1992, he was admitted as a student to the Painting Department of École Supérieure d'Arts Visuels in Geneva. After the first year he switched to film studies at the same school, where he graduated in 1996. He started working in film after his return to Romania.

Cristi Puiu co-wrote the screenplays of both his feature films, Stuff and Dough (2001) and The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu (2005), with Romanian Writer Răzvan Radulescu. Puiu independently wrote the screenplay for his short film Cigarettes and Coffee (2004).

In collaboration with Răzvan Radulescu, Puiu wrote the screenplay for Niki and Flo, commissioned by Lucian Pintilie, one of the most important Romanian Directors. In 2005 German Director Didi Danquart based the movie Offset on a script written by Puiu.

In 2006 this film gained 47 prizes, several nominations in the American Critics' Top 10 lists and in French magazines such as Telerama and Les Inrockuptibles.

He plans the next five films to study love between a man and a woman, love for one's children, love of success, love between friends, and carnal love. Cristi Puiu says that he has completed a synopsis for each of these films. The second film, Aurora, was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. His film Sieranevada took part in competition in 2016 Cannes Film Festival.