His directorial debut was inside 1965 for the film Goldstein for which he was awarded the Prix first state la Nouvelle Critique at a Cannes Film Festival. Within 1976 he wrote The Outlaw Josey Wales, and was at one point contract to direct it, however was late replaced by Clint Eastwood.

Within 1978 Kaufman directed the remaking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which would become his number one hit. Before long when, around 1981, Kaufman became involved by owning a foremost Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he receives story credit. When a character of Indiana Jones was created by George Lucas, it was Kaufman who come higher by using a story & a pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant.

Around 1983 Kaufman directed the critically acclaimed film, The Right Stuff, an adaptation of the book of the same title by Tom Wolfe. Inside 1988 Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Inside 1990 he wrote and directed Henry and June, which is said to be the major factor the development of the newly MPAA rating, NC-17.

Inside 1993 he directed Rising Sun, an adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel which removed a anti-Japanese bias of the book. A movie star Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.

Inside 2000 Kaufman directed Quills, a satirical horror film about a more and more desperate efforts of the Marquis de Sade's jailers to censor his licentious works.

Inside 2003 he directed Twisted, a thriller about a immature police matron whose casual sex partners come murdered patch she herself suffers alcoholic blackouts. It starred Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia.

Kaufman is depending inside San Francisco alongside more such notable when Francis Ford Coppola, Chris Columbus & nearby neighbor George Lucas, in which he diarrhea his production company Walrus & Associates using his personal. A local eating place has the wall devoted to Kaufman of pictures & autographs, known as The Steps of Rome.

es:Philip Kaufman