Jon Kauffman is an award-winning filmmaker, having written and directed seven short films which have played at film festivals throughout the United States, including at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. He won the 'Best Undergraduate Drama' award at the 2005 Ivy Film Festival for his film "A Fragrance of Night," and his graduate thesis film, "Storm Up The Sky," received several awards and was a semi-finalist at the 2010 Angelus Student Film competition. It was also featured on NY1, New York Citys 24-hour cable-news station. In addition, Kauffman has received numerous grants for his work. Kauffman received his M.F.A. from Columbia University's graduate film program in 2012 and received an A.B. with honors from Occidental College in Los Angeles where Kauffman studied comparative literature and art history. Upon completing his undergraduate work, he spent three months traveling and volunteering throughout East Africa where he was also completing research for a feature-length screenplay