His score for Garth Davis’s Oscar-nominated film Lion, co-composed with Dustin O’Halloran, was awarded an AACTA Award and nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA in 2017. Bertelmann has provided music for a large number of films and TV shows, such as the Emmy- and BAFTA nominated mini-series Patrick Melrose (2018), Gunpowder(2017), Dublin Murders, Your Honor (2019) and most recently for the feature films Summerland, Stowaway, and Downhill(2020).

A uniquely innovative pianist, who in his solo work goes by the name Hauschka, Bertelmann has recorded with the Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn, composed for soloists such as mandolinist Avi Avital and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, as well as for ensembles and orchestras, among others alongside the experimental Icelandic band múm for the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra as their artist in residence. Since 2018, Volker Bertelmann is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.