TORONTO - Newcomer Carey Mulligan says she knew she had to pull out all the stops when acting with veterans Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education."

"You always have to raise your game when you're around people like that," the 24-year-old British actress said during an interview Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"They make you better. You've got to be on your toes."

"An Education," which boasts a screenplay by novelist Nick Hornby, earned raves at the Sundance film festival earlier this year.

There's already Oscar talk surrounding Mulligan's performance as a 16-year-old schoolgirl who is seduced by a charming and mysterious older man (Sarsgaard).

"It's all positive," Mulligan said of the buzz, which is akin to the glowing reception Anne Hathaway received at last year's festival for "Rachel Getting Married" (she was ultimately nominated for an Oscar).

It's the first English-language film for Danish director Lone Scherfig, whose previous screen credits include "Italian for Beginners" and "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself." She shared an agent with Hornby and was hired to helm "An Education" after another director dropped the project.

Scherfig championed Mulligan -- who appeared in the 2005 film "Pride and Prejudice" -- for the lead role.

"She just seemed right for it," said the director. "The film is very dependent on its leading lady. It has a sweetness to it that is hers."

The film also presents a captivating portrait of London in 1961, a city at a crossroads.

"(It's) a period where there's this urge for something fun to happen, for something that's future-oriented, wild," said Scherfig.

"(Mulligan's character) Jenny is very much like her time, she has such an appetite for a future she doesn't know of."

Mulligan, who bears a striking resemblance to Audrey Hepburn, starts work on "Wall Street 2" this weekend in New York. It co-stars Shia LaBeouf, with whom she has been romantically linked.

She doesn't seem fazed by the hype around "An Education."

"It's exciting," she said. "I'd never been to a film festival before Sundance. ... All of this means I get to go to places I'd never otherwise go."

Scherfig, who shares a subtly comic sensibility with Hornby and has long been a fan of his work, is just pleased that audiences seem to click with her movie.

"What I'm very happy about is that people seem to 'get' the film -- the warmth and the complexity. It's fantastic."

The Toronto festival opened Thursday night with the British biopic "Creation" and runs until Sept. 19.

"An Education" is set to open in theatres Oct. 23.