Great Expectations (1946)
A list like this is perhaps incomplete without a Charles Dickens adaptation, in this case it is the 1946 version of Great Expectations that gets the nod.
It is no coincidence that David Lean was selected twice, a director of epic films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India and Bridge Over the River Kwai. Lean also excelled at the beginning of his career with great adaptations of Dickens’ works which included Great Expectations and Oliver.