The Registration Deadline filter is an overlap test, not a closes-before test. Give it a start and an end, and it returns every competition whose dates overlap that window at all, even by a day. A competition whose registration opened inside your range and runs on for another six months is a match, because part of it falls inside what you asked for.
That is why asking for this month returns competitions closing next year. They are not errors in the list. They are competitions that were open during the month you named.
It is not restricted to the registration date either
Despite the label, the test runs against the competition's dates in general rather than the registration one specifically. A competition can be returned because its submission window, its shortlist window or its results window overlaps your range, while its registration closed long before. This widens the result further, and it is the reason a range can return competitions that are not open to enter at all.
How to find competitions closing inside a period
Use the tabs and the sort rather than the date box.
- Open All Competitions and set the sort to Registration Deadline (Earliest). The list then runs in closing order and you can read down to the date you care about.
- Or use the Ongoing tab, which holds only competitions still open, already ordered by the deadline closing soonest.
Both give you a closing order, which is the question the date filter is usually being asked.
Two things that make the filter do nothing
- Both dates are required. A start with no end, or an end with no start, is ignored and the list comes back unfiltered.
- A start later than the end is ignored in the same way, with no message. Check the two boxes if a filter appears to have had no effect.